When I read Wolfy's post, my first thought was that in one area - bites and injuries - comparing ferrets with other pet species (which is where it might be of benefit) is going to be difficult. Wolfy wrote "I'd like to know many bites out of how many dogs occur (frequency rates)? How many bites out of how many pet ferrets in the populations?" I thought of that and it does not come out well if you look at numbers of bites in several years (eg in a ten year period) this is because there will be several generations (at least two) of ferrets in that period, but one of dogs. So ten million dogs might be quoted as having 200 bites in that ten year period, and 330,000 ferrets (30 times less the number of dogs) might have 10 bite incidents. So it would look as though the bite numbers were worse for ferrets - even though in that time the ferrets would have been comprised of twice as many animals because of the shorter lifespan. As far as numbers are concerned Ferret numbers Very shaky estimates. For "ownership" numbers (and that means each household) which would be one method for estimating number of ferrets in the US, ferrets are lumped in with small pets - rabbits and rodents by two organizations - the AVMA (American veterinary medical association) and APPA (American Pet Products Association). The USDA has info compiled from both agencies (see link below) Neither separates ferrets out of the "small mammals" category of rodents, rabbits and ferrets". http://jerconsultingllc.com/US_Pet_Population_Estimates_2-2010.pdf The APPA suggests there are 116 small animal pets per 1000 households. (defined as rats, hamsters, ferrets, turtles, rabbits as compared with other pets) Assuming ferrets occupy (being conservative) one fifth of those households (rats, hamsters and rabbits etc probably cheaper and more popular) we get (rounding off) ferrets as 23 per 1000 households. Usually we have 2-3 ferrets (sometimes more) at least per house, giving say 69 - call it 70 ferrets per 1000 pet owning households. Using AVMA's figure of households owning "small pets" as 4,468,000, and assuming the 70 ferrets we get about 312,000 ferrets in the US. Who knows exactly if this is right - might be low since some folks suggest 2 million. Not having an accurate number means you cannot calculate bites per thousand ferrets. Whereas probably the dog numbers are better verified Dogs - On http://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp they suggest between 72 million and 77 million dogs in 42,000-45,000 households. Bites, Injuries, Deaths from Ferrets and Dogs Deaths: Here's 2010 Dog Bite statistics. http://www.dogsbite.org/bite-fatalities-2010.htm 33 people killed of which 20 were children. 18 were five years old or younger - several were babies. These are in a pdf link below if you'd like to download it: http://www.dogsbite.org/fatalities/2010-fatal-dog-attacks-dogsbite.pdf No deaths for ferrets - which is good Bites without deaths of humans - much tougher - not much documentation for 2010 for either species, and tough to find statistics that can be used to even estimate bites per each species. I found the following estimates with regard to ferrets on Dr Erica Matulich's site - http://www.cypresskeep.com/Ferretfiles/Legal1-FM.htm but the site is dated 2000 so the data is old and I'm sure newer statistics would be hard to come by. She says (talking about ferrets): "the number of actual bite incidences reported to the CDC and studied by the AVMA is very low (estimated at 65 incidences per year, on average). And the number of severe cases is even lower, at about 15 per year across the entire U.S. population. In comparison, dogs bite about 3.5 MILLION people annually, and cats about a half-million people annually. But, you might argue, there are lots more dogs and cats out there than ferrets! That is true, so let's translate the bite statistics into "per capita" or per ferret incidences. This calculation requires that one know the actual population of ferrets, which is more difficult to determine than that for cats and dogs. An extremely conservative 1991 AVMA population estimate was 278,000. However, Marshall Farms alone has bred and sold over 600,000 ferrets. Performance Foods, manufacturers of Totally Ferret Food estimates a U.S. ferret population of 8-10 million. Even at the most conservative (and unrealistically low) estimate, you are 275 times more likely to be bitten by a dog than a ferret. In fact, you are more likely to be bitten by a cat, rabbit, snake, or even a human being than a domestic ferret. At a more reasonable ferret population estimate, you are almost 5,000 times more likely to be bitten by a dog than a ferret. These statistics show that ferrets are just not as likely to bite, even when provoked. However, the ASPCA and the HSUS warn that "NO pet should be left unsupervised with a child." Note : I'm not sure where the 65 ferret bite instances a year comes from - no attribution to a publication that I can find maybe the statistic came from an unofficial survey. I'm assuming it means bites reported to authorities rather than the usual non injuring nips. Ferret Bite statistics I have a copy of Dr Graening's report which Pat Wright commissioned - it does have a pretty extensive account of ferret "attacks" and mentions 2 infant deaths in the US in Oregon. The stats are on page 103 - this is the link to the report http://ferretsanon.com/EIR/Final_Report.pdf (It isn't actually an EIR )- it's a preliminary survey and I think is not in its final format - there are a few errors in the text. So, three infant injuries in the US so far from say 300,000 ferrets, over a ten year period one death in London a long time ago - have lost the link. One child injured in France in 2007 - that reference also had a keyword "neglect" Dog bites injuring humans statistics In 2001 a CDC survey http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/sep03/030915i.asp showed "In its analysis, the CDC estimates 368,245 persons were treated. Injury rates were highest among 5- to 9-year-old children." Also on the javma site http://www.avma.org/press/story_ideas/dog_bites.asp "Every year more than 4.7 million people are bitten by a dog, and dog bite victims requiring medical attention in the United States number approximately 800,000 annually" So from that one 16.4 bites per dog owned. Number of people killed by dogs was 33 in 2010, (I saw that statistic somewhere but lost the site - can anyone verify it?)and for earlier statistics - this the summary which states that 227 human deaths due to dogs occurred between 1979 and 1996: http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/images/dogbreeds-a.pdf from which I quote - So for about an estimated ferret population of half a million - no adult deaths in the US ever listed, but 2 babies. So For 75 million dogs we have over 300 deaths and several infants (did not separate them out) Over I rest my case! Meryl [Posted in FML 6949]