One raccoon, two bites, two completely different analyses — which is exactly why this ridiculous scenario is the best exception-stacking exercise in the library.
Bite one, breakroom, on break. Every escape route fails. The breakroom is squarely the work environment (29 CFR 1904.5(b)(1)). 'He was on break' doesn't help: the personal-task exception (1904.5(b)(2)(v)) requires the injury to occur outside assigned working hours, and OSHA said in its July 29, 2019 letter that lunch breaks are considered assigned working hours — defined as the hours the employee is actually expected to work. Animal encounters in the work environment carry the work-related presumption (1904.5(a)), and no exception in the closed list of nine mentions wildlife. Rabies post-exposure shots are medical treatment beyond first aid, so 29 CFR 1904.7 is satisfied. On the log it goes.
Bite two, company picnic. Now the recreational-activity exception (29 CFR 1904.5(b)(2)(iii)) enters: injuries resulting solely from voluntary participation in a wellness program or in a medical, fitness, or recreational activity are not work-related. But read it the way OSHA wrote it: the exception covers injuries from participation in the activity — the pulled hamstring in the softball game, the sprained ankle in the sack race. A raccoon ambush is not a consequence of participating in a picnic; it's an event that happened at a location. So the analysis shifts to harder questions: Was attendance truly voluntary (if the boss 'strongly encouraged' it, the exception weakens)? Was the picnic on company premises (which pulls it back toward the work environment)? This is the rare case where a reasonable employer could land either way — and should document the reasoning either way.
The meta-lesson, and it's a real one: exceptions to work-relatedness are narrow, literal, and read against the employer. When two incidents look identical — same raccoon, same teeth, same employee — geography, timing, and voluntariness can still split them onto opposite sides of the log. That's not a bug in the system; that is the system.