Humans can be injured by the bites or stings of many kinds of animals, including dogs, cats, and fellow humans; arthropods such as spiders, bees, and wasps; snakes; and marine animals such as jellyfish and stingrays.

In the United States, where the dog population exceeds 50 million, dogs surpass all other mammals in the number of bites inflicted on humans. However, most dog-bite injuries are minor. Each year, about 10-20 Americans, mostly children under 10 years old, are killed by dogs.

Cat bites are far less common than dog bites. The tissue damage caused by cat bites is usually limited, but they carry a higher risk of infection. The infection rate for dog bites is 15-20%. For cats it is 30-40%.

Bites from mammals other than dogs and cats are uncommon, with one exception--- human bites, of which there are approximately more than 70,000 a year in...