Dog attacks on mail carriers hit 6,755 as online sales boom
Booming Online Sales Mean More Dog Bites for Mail Carriers
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-a-week 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 Thursday as part of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, which begins Sunday.
(Score: 3, Funny) by jasassin on Saturday April 08 2017, @05:32AM (10 children)
I'll bite.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday April 08 2017, @06:11AM (2 children)
Welcome to try my Kevlar pants with jelly padding, loaded with potassium cyanide only this morning - don't worry, it's quite safe when not punctured and it stop leaking when no pressure is applied.
If you don't want me to deliver your parcel, feel free to drop by at our storage facility, conveniently located 30 miles away, where you can pick that parcel after you pay for the warehousing - a meagre $20/day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday April 08 2017, @06:20AM (1 child)
Now I'm definitely biting your leg.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday April 08 2017, @07:36AM
That's fine. Just don't pull it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 08 2017, @06:27AM (6 children)
Nigger dogs.
Whites who give up their collies and golden retrievers for nigger dogs, pitbulls, bullies, rots, Doberman Pinschers; are asking to have their faces chewed off.
It is up to the White man to have wholesome family dogs. Nigger-dogs need not apply.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday April 08 2017, @06:35AM
Wow man this is a whole new level of fucked up I never really thought about. Props to you for enlightening me to Nigger Dogs. That shits not even racist its like raspecialist. Now we got nigger canines running around doing hood rat shit. Will there ever be a day where I don't say wow... that's some fucked up shit?
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @06:55AM (2 children)
Remember the Russian fox-breeding experiment? They bred for foxes that would be safer to handle, and ended up with foxes with pale fur.
It has now been shown that there is an actual connection. Cells migrate out from the neural tube during embryonic development, leading to darker coloration and a more aggressive demeanor.
Biology is a disturbing pile of spaghetti code. Change one thing here, and something seemingly unrelated changes elsewhere. Another great example is the association between red hair and resistance to anesthesia, which has been traced back to the same DNA and thus is NOT mere correlation due to ethnicity.
So, um... yeah. Any implications for humans, for example Swedish and Somalian, are not something you could research because... reasons.
FWIW, the pale cream-colored Labrador retrievers are very friendly, very into playing catch, and easy to keep clean. Also BTW, statistically speaking, the owners of pit bulls have different mental traits. People who pick the dog with the less-good reputation have a mindset that makes them do it.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 08 2017, @01:27PM
I'm not buying that shit. A 200+ pound sheep ram with a ten pound nutsack will readily toss your ass up into a tree - and he's pure white. Color has nothing to do with his aggressiveness, he just has huge balls and a hard fucking head. Kinda reminds me of some of my redneck neighbors. And, he doesn't like Jehovah's Witnesses any more than I do.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Whoever on Saturday April 08 2017, @04:16PM
So are the black Labrador retrievers. Your point?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @09:02AM
> dobermann
> nigger
Orizinal Pozter, bitte
dobermann ist Schutzstaffel
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday April 08 2017, @04:08PM
Where do Black Labrador Retrievers fit into your taxonomy of dogs?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @06:42AM (1 child)
Currently we have places trying to bad dogs by breed, which is... useful but terribly inaccurate. (25% chow, 25% doberman, 25% great dane, 25% rottweiler... not on the ban list so perfectly OK then!) We have owners who are all "my dog would never..." until shown otherwise, like my neighbor with the pit bull that took a 3x7 inch chunk of flesh off some lady's leg.
It's dumb. With DNA for the dogs we can do better, provided that we account for people putting "nice" breeds unattended with little kids. We can then wipe out the bad DNA over time, doing a better job of breeding than we ever could before. If that happens to wipe out a breed, oh well, but let's not do it on purpose.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday April 10 2017, @06:12AM
What we need is for dog owners to agree to be publicly executed if their dog attacks anyone and causes any serious harm, in order to own a dog. If this happened, I wouldn't expect the ownership rates to change, but I would expect mass executions of dog owners. These people are absolutely insane about their dogs. (Note, I'm not claiming all dog owners are insane, or that all dogs are dangerous, just that owners of dangerous dogs (which are a minority) are insane in their devotion to them and belief in their safety.)
(Score: 1) by Scrutinizer on Saturday April 08 2017, @07:31AM (6 children)
Does the USPS conduct operations differently throughout various regions of the USA? Doorstep package delivery is a fever dream for me in the southwest.
The article itself doesn't seem to provide any evidence that package delivery is the primary cause for the reported increase in lacerations de canine. If my mailbox is any indication the typical American's the posthuman comes by on a too-frequent basis regardless of my package-ordering activities (apparently part of a conspiracy to boost paper shredder sales by gumming up existing ones into uselessness).
Even when a package is ordered, unless the carton is small enough to fit in the letterbox, I just get a pink slip demanding I report to my local USPS branch if I ever want a chance of seeing my package whole and un-dismembered.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @07:39AM (1 child)
> Does the USPS conduct operations differently throughout various regions of the USA?
Dude, they conduct operations differently by neighborhood.
If they won't leave packages on your doorstep it probably means you live in a poor neighborhood.
I recommend that you be richer. It really improves life in so many different ways.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @07:59AM
Actually, the USPS hallmark of a poor neighborhood is inconsistency. On the doorstep, in the front yard... if you're lucky enough that they did not deliver it somewhere else.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @08:02AM
If my mailbox is any indication the typical American's the posthuman comes by on a too-frequent basis regardless of my package-ordering activities
Well, I guess that's one way [wikipedia.org] of referring to the postman.
I, for one, welcome our new USPS overlords.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @12:32PM
I have to walk out to the end of the driveway, no letter box on my suburban door. The mailbox is one of the big "rural" ones, opening approx 10" wide x 12" high (arched on top). USPS is happy to leave packages inside. Or even stuffed halfway in if they are too long and the door won't close (assuming it is a dry day). Bigger stuff they usually pull into the driveway and leave by the side/garage door.
There are no unleashed dogs in our neighborhood, at least none that I've seen (except for one ancient & slow moving wiener dog that sneaks into our yard to watch the squirrels). That might have something to do with good mail delivery?
Every year or two there is something that needs to be signed for. If we don't hear the door bell, then we get the slip, have to wait a day until the package is back at the post office and go collect it ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday April 10 2017, @06:25AM
Delivery is totally different everywhere; it's very localized. Where I am, they leave mail in the box at the end of the driveway, but if it doesn't fit they come to your door. So yeah, if they're delivering more packages, that means that around here, they'll be getting out of their truck more often, which exposes them to more dogs.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Monday April 10 2017, @09:26AM
I wonder what you are getting delivered that it could possibly be "dismembered".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @07:35AM
I mean I wouldn't like to get bitten by a dog... Just say no to animal slaves.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 08 2017, @10:13AM
Charge people that let their dog loose such that the postman suffers?
I presume most people actually want what they ordered.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @11:54AM
If your pet bites the mail carrier its YOUR fault and you are too irresponsible to own a pet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 09 2017, @01:37AM
Given the cop tendency to shoot every dog in 100 yard radius if one of them looks at him funny, you can imagine the canine carnage that would ensue if over 6000 cops were actually bitten by dogs.
(I'm sure the toll on cats, squirrels, tortoises, rabbits, parrots and garden gnomes would be pretty high too.)
(Score: 1) by ShadowSystems on Sunday April 09 2017, @05:07AM
He used to tell us grandkids about some of the times he would have to deal with someone's dog in order to deliver their mail.
His favorite tactic was to carry a police billy club hung off one hip next to his carrier's bag.
Dog starts to growl & he'd reach for the club; dog goes to bite & he gives it a gentle tap on the noggin; dog refuses to take the hint & he'd send that sucker flying from a double handed "out of the park" homerun swing.
The owners that had a dog that merely growled at him got a warning, the ones that the dog tried to bite him got a bill for the ruined clothes, & the ones with the suddenly flying pooch would get an official letter from the Post Master General's office telling them that they would have to pick up their mail in person from then on because no carrier would stop at their place anymore.
Grampa loved kids, cats, & dogs, but if any one of the three got uppity he had no qualms about smackin' it/us upside da' head.
That was your First Warning. Second involved a harder whack. Third warning & it/you were no longer welcome in his vacinity.
Grampa loved carrying the mail, it gave him plenty of excersize, let him talk to folks when he dropped off their stuff, & the good dogs even got a treat from time to time.
But the bad dogs got a tap of the club to make 'em back off, a hard whack to get 'em to leave him the hell alone, & then a all mighty beating if they didn't learn.
He said it was extremely theraputic if some dingbat's dog decided to bite, it meant that grampa could cross the dingbat off his route & have a more enjoyable day.
He'd be disgusted with the USPS of today.
Not only are they not allowed to carry a club or whack a bad dog, they've been neutered in defending themselves beyond a can of spray mace.
Whoop-de-fekkin-doo, mace.
As grampa used to say "If some bastard is lunging at you with a knife to gut you, ''diplomacy time'' is over. Take his ass down, punch his lights out, & kick his balls up out his ears while he's down."
Yes gramps could be violent when provoked, but if your poodle suddenly turns into the devil with fangs, he's not just gonna waggle a finger & chide "Bad dog!"
Nope, that club is gonna swing & your skull is gonna fly outta tha' park.
*Cough*
As for the seven day a week deliveries, that has to be in limited areas.
I live a bit outside of San Jose / San Fransisco & we're lucky if we get mail on the weekends.
During the week it arrives "whenever the carrier feels like it" & we may not receive it until long after dinner on one day, or before breakfast on another.
Saturdays are an utter crapshoot, as you can sit on the porch specificly waiting to see if the bastard even drives by, never see him, go in to use the toilet for 2 minutes, & come out to find a pink "nobody was home" slip on the front door.
No knock, no ring, not even a shout, just a stealth zip in, slap the sticker on the door, & run away before anyone might see 'em.
Sunday deliveries? Yeah right. And pigs might fly out your ass.
*Chortle*
Anyway, that's my two cents worth.
I'll wander away now, I think I hear the nurse trying to find me again & it's time to hide!
*Scampers away to move the straight jacket again*