It is a busy time of year with Christmas just weeks away
Royal Mail is urging dog owners to take specific measures – or risk having their post “suspended” after thousands of postal workers were attacked by dogs over the past year alone. Some delivery staff have suffered life-changing injuries, prompting Royal Mail to make a direct appeal to pet owners to “please help us protect your postie”.
The company warns that mail delivery can be halted, albeit temporarily, if a dog is roaming free outside a property. This reminder is especially relevant today with Christmas around the corner and people getting more letters and parcels delivered. With this in mind, owners are also being urged to keep their dogs secured away from the door when answering it and to consider fitting letter cages or external postboxes to prevent bites through the letterbox.
Kirsteen Hobson, a postwoman for a decade, endured horrific facial injuries from a vicious dog attack, reports the Express. Recounting her terrifying ordeal, she said: “The gentleman I was delivering to was standing, kind of half hanging, outside his door.
“I got about two-thirds of the way and next thing I know there’s a dog on my face and it ripped my lip off. I didn’t see the dog come at me, my first view of the dog was when it was attached to my face … Somehow I managed to get the dog off me, and then it lunged at my face again, biting me under the eye and on my forehead.
“I somehow got the dog off me again and I turned around to get away from it, and it sunk its teeth into my leg, into my thigh”, she continued, revealing how the harrowing incident continues to haunt “every aspect of my life.”
Kirsteen continued: “It’s not something that I’d like anyone else to experience, which is why I wanted to share this so it hopefully doesn’t happen (again), it can be prevented.”
To help avoid these incidents, the Royal Mail website provides a downloadable postcard that people can print and display in their door or window. The Royal Mail states: “This lets anyone delivering to your property know that you have a dog and asks them to wait whilst you secure your dog before opening the door.”
The postal company further advises: “If we are delivering to your home address and you have a dog, help us deliver safely by keeping it secure and out of the way before your postie arrives.”
