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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: 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*