Ben McCanna/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images
- Postal workers suffer more than 5,400 dog attacks every year.
- Many dog owners say their dogs won't bite before they do, according to delivery drivers.
- Dog bites can cause carriers to interrupt service in the case of frequent attacks or fatalities.
There's one thing that nearly every delivery company teaches new employees on day one: residents lie about their dogs.
"He's never done that before" is at the top of the list of things drivers regularly hear after being attacked by a dog.
"All dogs have teeth," US Postal Service spokesperson David Coleman told Insider. "You just never know."
It's so common that drivers make TikToks and memes about it to post on social platforms like Reddit. According to accounts from delivery drivers online, many dog bites happen after a resident tells the person making the delivery that the dog doesn't bite.
Mail carriers suffer more than 5,400 bites per year, according to the Postal Service. And despite work by the agency to decrease them by educating the public — there's a National Dog Bite Awareness Week every year in June — the count has only come down slightly since 2020.
Dog bites are the third most common injury sustained by delivery workers, according to a 2022 study by a labor coalition, behind slips and falls and muscle strains and ahead of vehicle accidents.
And there have been fatalities reported in recent years, too. An Amazon delivery driver was found dead in a yard in Missouri in October, suspected to have been mauled to death by two dogs. A Florida mail carrier died after she was attacked by five dogs when her truck broke down in August.
When the situation gets out of hand, the Postal Service's last resort is to simply stay out of an area with an unrestrained dog. Mail delivery stops and residents have to pick up their mail at the post office. Amazon also temporarily cut off a neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida last year after a dog attack in 2020.
Residents in subsections of Des Moines, Iowa, Cleveland, Ohio, Greenfield, Indiana, Roanoke, Virginia, all temporarily lost mail service in the last year because the neighborhood was deemed unsafe by mail carriers. In the Indiana incident, a mail carrier required 50 stitches and was in danger of losing one of her arms before service was suspended.
Decisions to suspend delivery are made at the local level and often by the mail carrier themself, said Coleman. If a mail carrier doesn't feel safe in an area, nearby residents may have to pick up their packages and mail from the local post office until the issue is addressed.
"Since we've been delivering the mail this has always been an issue. It's just one of the elements being out there in neighborhoods with dogs," Coleman said.
The USPS recommends that dogs should be kept inside when a delivery person is likely to approach the house. Attacks often take place when a resident opens the door as a worker is placing a package down, so keeping dogs away from the door and enclosed during deliveries helps too.
The post office also suggests children not take anything directly from a carrier since dogs may be more protective of children.
Mail carriers also receive training on how to assess and approach dogs and they are required to carry dog repellant.
According to the USPS, these states had the most dog bite incidents concerning postal workers in 2021.
- California
- Texas
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Michigan
- New York
- Illinois
- Florida
- Washington
- Kentucky
Are you a mail carrier or delivery driver with a story? Reach out to Senior Reporter Emma Cosgrove ecosgrove@insider.com.