I don't want to derail Olivia's so I'll state my opinion here instead.

I have gotten nipped in the hands more than a few times by my dogs when they were going after a tug toy. My bad. I've also decided that if my dogs ever accidentally bit me in a way that I need to see a doctor, I'm not telling them which dog bit me. Period. I'll just say I know the dog and am confident that it is up to date on it's rabies vaccination. Please note I'm not talking about truly dangerous dogs, or unknown dogs. Just dogs that might accidentally bite me that are owned by myself or people I know/trust.

Doctors are required to report dog bites, but most, if not all, of the time the patient is not required to give information about which dog it was to a doctor. I know of a few people who went this route and were bullied around a bit by the doctor/police officer that showed up, but in the end they got treatment and they never did disclose the identity of the dog.

The way I see it, there is no reason my dog should have to pay/be quarantined if I make a stupid mistake playing tug with them or something.

I'm with you Mara. I've been to the ER for dog bites, (dogs at the rescue I used to manage) and I told the Dr it was a dog I worked with, and I knew his vaccine status, and didn't want to harm the reputation of a good organization by reporting a dog bite. He didn't push the issue at all, and just ask that I monitor the dog for 14 days.

Everyone was happy. (Except the dog... he turned out to be an ass, and unadoptable, so he lived at the shelter for the rest of his life)

When I was bit and went to the ER they had zero problem when I told them it was my dog, and he was vaccinated.

They still gave me a tetanus shot, scrubbed my wound until I thought I would puke, then shot me up with antibiotics and gave me 2 weeks of horse pills to take.

The only thing the doctor had to say was that I was lucky and stupid........he was right.

My good friends husky accidentally ripped her hand open playing tug, the doctor did much the same. She made it clear it had been an accident and that the dog was vaccinated and that was the of it.

I also know that my mom's cat has bitten bad enough two times to send her and my aunt to the ER to be checked. I don't know if cat bite laws apply like dogs, but those doctors also had no problem when told it was a known cat and fully vaccinated.

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

I also know that my mom's cat has bitten bad enough two times to send her and my aunt to the ER to be checked. I don't know if cat bite laws apply like dogs, but those doctors also had no problem when told it was a known cat and fully vaccinated.

There was an orange tom cat that used to hang out in the neighborhood. He was fairly friendly and would come into my house with my cat on occasion. Don't know who he belonged to but he would hang out near my house...

So anyway, while I was on vacation for a week, apparently he snuck into a neighbors house with her cat and when she tried to remove him after they fought she got bit pretty bad. It was reported to animal control and they wanted to quarantine the cat. Since they thought it was mine, I had a weeks worth of notices on my front door.