US Postal Service releases national dog bite rankings

CNN

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California and Texas ranked highest on the United States Postal Service’s annual list of states with the most dog bites against its employees, the USPS announced.

The report calls attention to the aggressive dog behavior mail carriers often face as the USPS kicks off National Dog Bite Awareness Week.

In 2022, California had the highest number of dog bites with 675. Texas and New York were not far behind with 404 and 321 bites, respectively, the Postal Service reported.

“When our mail carriers are bitten, it is usually a ‘good dog’ that had not previously behaved in a menacing way,” USPS Occupational Safety and Health Senior Director Linda DeCarlo said in a news release.

Houston, Los Angeles and Dallas ranked highest among US cities with the most dog attacks against USPS workers last year, according to the USPS.

More than 5,300 USPS employees were attacked by dogs during mail deliveries last year, according to the Postal Service.

The annual public service awareness campaign, accompanied by the hashtag #dogbiteawareness, runs through next week.

I think we could stop this problem if the postal service just put more mailboxes in shopping centers or the many vacant buildings standing in most towns. Just stop home delivery completely. Not only would they save money because they would need less vehicles and employees, mail would be less likely to be stolen.

I think the concept of home delivery, especially 6 days a week is really old and antiquated. If they just went to 2 days a week delivery, it would be plenty and save on labor and also less dog bites.

Email basically has replaced the bulk of delivery anyway.

And what is the population of those 3 states?

1, 2, and 4

I bet Florida is 4th on the list (it's population is 3)

I concur the stats aspect of this article does not help us as land lords. I do disagree about the lack of value of this article.

Postal workers are trained on how to avoid placing themselves in positions where they will be bitten, yet several hundred in multiple states get bitten annually. Do neighbors receive any training? - I am not even aware that training existed

In my feed today--

May 26, 1963 - What does a mailman do after getting bitten six times in two weeks? He bites back, that’s what. Only postman Ken Lincicome first got himself a bigger set of teeth.

After the sixth bite, Lincicome hauled his bleeding body back to his Fremont, California post office station and started telling the boys he wasn’t going to it take any more. He would fight fire with fire. So, Lincicome leashed and harnessed a German shepherd male dog and named him Schann.

“Now,” Lincicome says, “those mutts stay away from me.”

Lincicome hikes a 17-mile route in Irvington, just east of the south end of San Francisco Bay. He said his worst enemies were a big collie and a pair of beagles. “Those beagles,” the 28-year-old letter carrier remarked, “would like to eat me up.” The collie would hop over a fence and pin him against a wall for a 10-to-15-minute bout every day. Other assorted canines would be less direct, waiting until he had his back turned before jumping him. All that ended when Schann came along.

Who's in charge when ya own a dog(s)

675 dog bites in a state with the population of California's is not a lot of dog bites, especially when you consider that nips are counted. Serious dog bites are quite rare.

I call BS on the Schann story. If you walk around with a dog on a leash, any number of dogs who would never bite a human will rush out and challenge the strange dog. Ask anyone who leash walks their dog anywhere in public. Not to even consider the complaints if the mailman's dog caused a vet bill by biting little Pookie Darling.

What sort of idiot allows a collie to "pin him against the fence" for 15 minutes day after day?

One more reason I’ve set up CBUs where I have a number of units together, and moved boxes to curbs at most other places.