New plea over attacks on posties

Dog owners in Perthshire are being asked to play their part in cutting dog attacks on postmen and women.

The Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union are appealing to pet owners to keep animals under control during the school holidays.

Posties face increased danger when parents and children are at home, with dogs sometimes left unsupervised in the garden.

DOG OWNERS in Perthshire are being asked to play their part in cutting dog attacks on postmen.

The Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union are appealing to pet owners to keep animals under control when the postman calls during the school holidays.

A total of 16 attacks were recorded last year in the PH postcode area and traditionally the number of attacks usually peak during the holiday period.

Postmen and women face increased danger during the holidays when parents and children are at home, with dogs sometimes allowed unsupervised in the garden or out on to the streets without restraints.

While this figure is down a third on the previous year, Royal Mail feel it is still unacceptably high.

Steve Greaves, safety director for Royal Mail in Scotland said: “Clearly most dogs are not inherently dangerous, however, even the most placid animal can be prone to attack if it feels its territory is being threatened.

“We would like to express our thanks to our customers in Perthshire for working with us to help reduce the number of attacks by 33% since 2010. They have fallen from 24 in 2010-2011 to 16 in 2011-2012. Now we want to reduce this number further as there are still too many attacks taking place.

“Our first priority as an employer is to ensure the welfare and safety of our people who provide a valuable service to our customers and we regularly provide advice to our people to help minimise the risk of an attack and have spent over £100,000 on awareness campaigns and equipment to help reduce the risk of injury.

“However, even just being threatened by an unrestrained pet is a frightening situation for our delivery staff and we would appeal to owners to keep their pets under control, especially if they know their pets have a territorial nature.”

As well as the awareness campaigns, thousands of posting pegs have been issued which are devices which help postmen and women put letters through the letter box while protecting their fingers

Donald Brydon, chairman of Royal Mail Group launched an independent inquiry into dog attacks on postal workers led by Sir Gordon Langley, with the objective of making recommendations to address them.

Dave Joyce, CWU national health and safety officer, said: “The age-old image of the dog attacking the postman is not a laughing matter.

“Thousands of our members are bitten every year and hundreds suffer debilitating injuries every year which leave them with physical and psychological scarring, some with life changing disabilities and all in the course of doing their job.

“There are so many things that dog owners can do to reduce the likelihood of an attack taking place so we strongly urge all dog owners to look at these top tips.

“Prevention is always better than the cure when it comes to dog attacks so we hope that all dog owners will take a moment to check where their pet is, especially over the summer holidays when attacks increase.”

“The age-old image of a dog

attacking a postman is no laughing matter.”

Dave Joyce

Royal Mail are asking owners to keep their dogs under control.