OAKLAND, CA — The U.S. Postal Service released its top 30 dog-attack city rankings and offered tips to reduce dog attacks to mail carriers. Nationwide, 5,767 Postal Service employees were attacked last year.

For Oakland mail carriers, getting dog owners to take responsibility for their dogs can help reduce attacks.

Recently, West Grand Carrier Annex City Carrier Debbie Davis was walking up a hill to deliver to a house, and she heard a dog barking. She saw the owner holding a leash tied to a German Shepherd while she was talking on her cell phone. Davis called out to the dog owner for reassurance that the dog was restrained, and the dog owner was quick to say that she had the dog under control. Davis continued on her route when she heard the dog behind her. The German Shepherd was on her before she could react, pinning her against a fence. The dog had jumped the four-foot -high fence after the dog owner had gone inside the house. Davis desperately tried to shield herself with her mail satchel and packages but the dog bit her forearm. The attack left a permanent scar on her forearm and a long-lasting memory of her frightening experience.

Paulson Martinez, city carrier at Airport Station, has experienced several dog attacks in his 30 years of carrying the mail. He has had his shoe heel bitten by a pit bull terrier that resulted in a slip, trip, and fall, but thankfully has never been bitten. Martinez said that his satchel and dog spray have saved him on numerous occasions. 

Martinez says he re-lives his dog attack experiences and he continues to try to work with dog owners to restrain their dogs before he arrives to deliver the mail. If customers fail to take responsibility for their dogs, he doesn’t hesitate to report them, which ultimately leads to holding delivery.

Of the 4.5 million Americans bitten by dogs annually, half of all victims are children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Postal Service, the medical community, veterinarians and the insurance industry work together to educate the public that dog bites are avoidable by conducting National Dog Bite Awareness Week every May.

Oakland City, with 21 dog attacks, was listed as one of the top 30 cities for dog attacks in the country in 2014. Oakland accounted for a third of all dog attacks in 2014 in the Bay-Valley Postal District, with San Jose having 20 and Richmond with 15, bringing the district total to 56. 

The Bay-Valley Postal District includes the East Bay from Napa to Fremont, South Bay from San Jose to King City and the coast from Big Sur to Santa Cruz. With the year not half over, Oakland has already experienced 12 dog bites, San Jose, 17, and Richmond, 9.

To help combat this serious problem, the Bay-Valley Postal District recently provided “Sit Means Sit” dog bite avoidance training by professional dog trainers to city carriers. The carriers are taught how to protect themselves from a dog attack and are instructed how to ward off a dog.

Postal officials offer advice to dog owners:

• If a letter carrier delivers mail or packages to your front door, place your dog in a separate room and close that door before opening the front door. Dogs have been known to burst through screen doors or plate-glass windows to get at strangers.
• Dog owners should remind their children about the need to keep the family dog secured. Parents should remind their children not to take mail directly from letter carriers in the presence of the family pet as the dog may view the letter carrier handing mail to a child as a threatening gesture.
• The Postal Service places the safety of its employees as a top priority. If a letter carrier feels threatened by a vicious dog or if a dog is running loose, the owner may be asked to pick up the mail at the Post Office until the carrier is assured the pet has been restrained. If the dog is roaming the neighborhood, the pet owner’s neighbors may be asked to pick up their mail at the Post Office as well.

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