PETS Postal Service delivers tips to nip dog bites in the bud

The service offers advice to help reduce dog attacks and carrier injuries.
YOUNGSTOWN -- During National Dog Bite Awareness Week, which runs through Friday, the United States Postal Service is calling attention to the risk posed to mail carriers and other citizens by irresponsible dog ownership.
Youngstown letter carriers suffered more than a dozen dog bites or attacks in the past year. Dogs interfered with mail delivery in a significant number of other instances, according to local postal service officials.
The Postal Service said it may be forced to stop mail delivery at an address if a letter carrier is threatened by a vicious dog. In some instances, Postal Service employees have sued and collected damages for dog bite injuries.
Nationwide, the Postal Service said that carriers suffered 3,423 dog attacks and bites last year, an average of 11 dog attacks or bites every delivery day. That figure does not include threatening instances that did not result in injury.
Letter carriers are not the only ones threatened by irresponsible dog ownership, postal officials said. Every year, 4.7 million people, mostly children and the elderly, suffer injuries from dog attacks, according to a Postal Service press release.
Prevent injury
The Postal Service offers simple advice that could help prevent dog attacks or injuries:
UOwners should ensure dogs are secured in a separate room before opening the front door to speak to a mail carrier because dogs have been known to burst through screen doors or plate glass windows to attack letter carriers and strangers.
UParents should remind children to keep the family dog secure.
UParents should ask children not to take mail directly from letter carriers because a dog may see handing mail to a child as a threatening gesture.
Nationally, the number of carriers attacked and bitten by dogs has declined over the years because of greater cooperation from dog owners, stricter leash laws, and increased efforts to educate letter carriers and the public about dealing with the problem, the Postal Service said.