Does your dog bite?

While we commiserate with our local letter carriers and their travails while on the job. (Not to mention really really wanting to keep our door to door delivery thing happening)

But, This story from the Daily news reminded us of the above clip from the classic Peter Sellers movie.

Carriers deliver appeal
By Christian Webber
The Daily News
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Page Three

A Canada Post letter carrier's job is full of dangers, from slipping in the winter to tripping in the summer, but one problem hasn't received enough attention from those who get their mail every day. Dogs have been terrorizing postal workers since the beginning of time it seems, but it is no laughing matter.

Lillian Au, media and community affairs manager said that dogs are a growing concern with Canada Post, and it is even more important that something is done about it when the weather warms up because more pooches are outside.

"Your yard is the letter carriers work place, and we want to make that as safe as possible," said Au.

Sometimes, people leave their dogs loose in their yards for extended periods of time, and that is a hazard to letter carriers when they are delivering mail. The dog versus letter carrier problem is constant but numbers seem to grow higher with the temperature.

Au said Canada Post carriers are increasingly at risk of dog bites or attacks. Last year, there were 81 issues involving dogs in British Columbia, 24 of which resulted in severe injury to an employee.

"A lot of people don't realize that dogs respond differently to strangers especially in uniform," said Au.

There have been no cases in Prince Rupert yet but they have already had a number of incidents around Terrace where carriers were unable to deliver the mail to certain households because the dog was lose or there was a safety issue involving an animal.

There have been attacks in Prince George and Kelowna that have required hospitalization, and one where a carrier required a number of stitches and was off work for some time.

"It's pretty nerve raking situation to be in, if you imagine, this is your work place, and to have a dog that is barking and threatening you. It's not a nice thing," said Au.

She said Canada Post is just asking for the cooperation of homeowners and tenants, urging people that if it is possible to keep the line of travel for the letter carrier unobstructed from dogs.

"We want to be proactive and prevent anything from happening," said Au.

She said there have been a number of incidents in which a dog has been put down against the owners wishes and they don't want that to happen.

"We just want make sure everyone is happy and no one is in harms way, for the dog and the letter carrier," said Au.

With today's letter carriers they are also burdened with heavy bags which according to Au, makes it really tough for letter carriers to get away. Also with the relief letter carriers, some dogs won't know them. They try to let relief carriers know which houses have a dog but sometimes the message doesn't get through.

"They are acting to protect their territory, and that's the nature of dogs, if they see someone they don't know it's their instinct to protect their territory," said Au.

She said the carriers are trained to deal with these situations but dogs are so unpredictable, the carriers are given safety messages and constantly reminded of this every year.

She said incidents can involve guard dogs or a dog or cat of any size.

"With little dogs it could be even tougher because they are hard to see and they can sneak out from nowhere," said Au.

"If the dog was tied up, that would go a long way to helping us," said Au.