More carriers suffer dog bites as package load increases

WASHINGTON — Booming online retail sales are good news for the U.S. Postal Service, but its carriers are incurring a cost: more dog bites.

Dog attacks on postal workers rose last year to 6,755, up 206 from the previous year and the highest in three decades, as internet shopping booms and consumers increasingly demand seven-day-aweek package delivery and groceries dropped at their doorstep. The high for attacks dated back to the 1980s, at more than 7,000, before maulings by pit bulls and other potentially aggressive dogs became a public issue.

Los Angeles topped the 2016 list with 80 attacks on postal workers, followed by Houston with 62 and Cleveland with 60.

The Postal Service released its annual figures this past week as part of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, which begins today.

A longtime cliche of movies, dogs biting mail carriers — or at least chasing them — is no laughing matter for the post office. Medical expenses and workers’ compensation cost the Postal Service millions of dollars each year.

“It’s always on your mind as a carrier, ‘Is there a dog in the area and is it a threat?’” said James Solomon, a 17-year postal carrier. Officially, 2 percent of carriers were bitten last year, but Solomon says every carrier has some kind of “dog experience,” from outrunning to cajoling a territorial pet.

After a 14 percent jump in dog attacks in 2015, the post office launched a “Trip Hazards” app on handheld devices to help warn carriers of potentially hostile dogs. Customers are asked on package pickup applications whether there is a dog at the address. In extreme cases, residents will be told to pick up mail at a post office until a repeat offender dog is restrained.

Rising dog attacks come amid doubledigit increases in the post office’s package business.