USPS Tips To Prevent Attacks
April 10, 2020
The Postal Service continues to fulfill its essential mission to provide services that process and deliver information, communications, goods and services vital to residents.
To ensure the safety of our delivery personnel, the Postal Service is asking Maryland dog owners to keep their animals secured when deliveries are being made. For local Postal Service officials and mail carriers, one bite is one too many and new tools continue to be unleashed that can help reduce dog attacks in the area.
- When a carrier delivers mail or packages to your front door, place your dog in a separate room and close that door before opening the front door. Dogs have been known to burst through screen doors or plate glass windows to attack visitors.
- Parents should remind children and other family members not to take mail directly from carriers in the presence of the family pet. The dog may view the carrier handing mail to a family member as a threatening gesture.
- If a carrier feels threatened by a dog, or if a dog is loose or unleashed, the owner may be asked to pick up mail at a Post Office or other facility until the carrier is assured the pet has been restrained. If the dog is roaming the neighborhood, the pet owner’s neighbors also may be asked to pick up their mail at the area’s Post Office.