Note to dog owners from Canada Post

Dear Editor:

As Canada Post employees — your family members, neighbours, friends — continue to serve Penticton customers during this challenging time, we are also seeking your assistance to help keep our employees safe.

Every day, our employees deliver to millions of homes across Canada and an estimated 41% of these households have dogs. They see them every day when delivering your mail and parcels, especially in these “dog days” of summer and as and most customers — both adults and children — are now home during the day.

As much as we love our canine pets, they are protective of their home and their family, and it’s impossible for delivery agents to know how any dog will react when they approach your home to deliver the mail. Dog incidents range from encounters with threatening dogs to being attacked and bitten.

Our request to dog owners:

Please do not open the door during deliveries or allow your dog to approach our employees while they are out in the community. This makes it difficult to adhere to physical distancing when owners need to retrieve their dogs, and it increases the risk of dog bites. A way to prevent your dog from approaching our employees is to keep them in another room for the time of the delivery.

We know this is a difficult time and we appreciate your help in keeping our employees safe, which will also help keep our local communities safe. We continue to put the safety of our employees and the community first. We thank all our customers for their patience and understanding.

Canada Post Media Relations