Every vet I know, or have known, has received multiple bites from dogs and multiple scratches from cats, plus an assortment of injuries from other species. It's just part of the job for people who work with animals, be they dogs, cats, gibbons or whatever.

I got a note this morning from a vet who had received a terrible scratch from a kitten! Here are a few sentences from his e-mail.

" I found that in biting size doesn't matter...like every other vet, I got
multiple scars from big and small but the longest scar I have is from
an 8 week old kitten...she raked my arm with her back paw and left a 6
inch doozer..I was giving a shot in the back of the neck and for some
strange reason she didn't like it."

What a load of hog manure to think that it would destroy Amanda's reputation even if she had been bitten by a dog! The only thing it would prove is that she's working with dogs who could have problems.

The people who are guaranteed never to get a bite are those sitting in cozy administrative positions and not doing hands-on work with animals. I think that Mary Lou Troman (BC SPCA President of the Board) is unlikely to get a bite. She told me at a luncheon in Nanaimo that she had no interest in doing hands-on work with animals, but that she admired people who could.

Jean