Critter Encounters Caused 6 Million Emergency Room Visits Over 5 Years

I was actually "lured" into reading an article because it stated that "animal bites" caused over 6 million emergency room visits during a 5 year period.  That seemed like an enormously high number to me, so I read the article.  After telling about the study, who conducted it, and that it was gathered from information nation-wide, the article again stated that it was all based on "animal bites."  It then made a two sentence statement about man encroaching into the territories that used to "belong" to bears.
  Puzzled, I read on, because I know that there are not that many attacks by bears, even though the rare occurrences are hugely covered by today's media.  Then I had my "ah-ha" moment.  The medical community considers insect bites and stings as being an "animal bite" in billing and recording charges for insurance. 
  In any event, I came away with some interesting factual knowledge.  During the years of the study, an average of  1,291,507 patients per year were seen in emergency rooms; those 6 million  patients ended up with patient care charges of $5.96 billion.
  The great majority of incidents were not life-threatening, and, again, a great majority of those were due to patients scratching at insect bites and causing infections. The three highest ranked reasons for visiting the emergency room in percentages were (1) 41% for non-venomous arthropod bite or sting, (2) 26% were for dog bites, and (3) 13% were for stings from hornets, wasps, and/or bees.  That means that 54% of the visits were for insect bites or stings.  - Now, please don't get me wrong on this - I am highly allergic to stings of bees, hornets and wasps, and I carry an epi-pen at all times because of that. - And  most of these visits were because people had scratched or irritated the site of the bite or sting, and had caused an infection.
   There was a low percentage rate of patients who died after their visit to the emergency room and then a subsequent admission into the hospital.  Of the deaths caused by these bites, the highest death rate was caused by bites from rats, the second highest was from bites delivered by venomous snakes or lizards, and the third highest fatality percentage was caused by dog bites.
   Again, it was an interesting study, but I really feel that calling insects "animals" is very misleading.