If anyone needs to rebut charges of the dangers of ferrets in statistical terms - the statistics below on dogs/cats come from Pubmed, one state's stats, and a CDC site. "Dog and cat bites account for $30 million in annual health care costs nationwide and 1% of ER visits. Cat bites have a higher rate of infection than dog bites. Puncture wounds, hand wounds, and wounds that are greater than 24 hours old are at higher risk for infection. A relatively common infection as the result of a cat bite is Pasteurella multocida infection. This organism is found in the mouth of basically all cats The Centers for Disease Control (CDC)' most recent available statistics state "In 2001, an estimated 368,245 persons were treated for dog bite related injuries (rate: 129.3 per 100,000 population) . The injury rate was highest for children aged 5--9 years and decreased with increasing age. Approximately 154,625 (42.0%) dog bites occurred among children aged 5-9. The majority (64.9%) of injuries to children aged less than 5 years old." There's also a whole load of statistics online on us humans and infanticide - but that's another whole can of worms. Meryl [Posted in FML 6943]