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Los Angeles ranks 1 as the city with the most dog bites to postal service employees, according to the US Postal Service annual Dog Bite National Rankings.
The Us Postal Service (USPS) released the rankings on May 30, as part of the USPS 2024 National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign.
According to USPS, dog attacks on Postal Service employees rose to more than 5,800 cases last year.
Los Angeles tops the 2023 rankings with a total of 65 dog bites to Postal Service employees. Houston, which ranked first in the 2022 rankings, comes in second with 56 dog bites. Houston is then followed by Chicago with a total of 48 bites.
Meanwhile, Long Beach, Tulsa, Portland, and Detroit were all ranked last with a total of 19 dog bites.
The rankings also reveals the top 10 dog bite states, with California still topping the list. In 2022, it topped the list with a total of 675 dog bites. This year, the dog bites in the state increased to 727.
Texas came in next with a total of 411 dog bites, with Ohio right behind with 359 dog bites.
New York, which was ranked third in the 2022 rankings, is now ranked sixth after the dog bites in the state drop from 321 to 296.
The National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign, which begins on June 02 and runs for a whole week until June 09, is the organization’s way of “offering crucial information on how dog owners can be good stewards for safe mail delivery and ensure the safety of our employees.”
USPS reveals that this year’s campaign’s theme is “Don’t let your dog bite the hand that serves you.”
Leeann Theriault, USPS Manager, said in a press release, “Letter carriers are exposed to potential hazards every day, none more prevalent than a canine encounter. All it takes is one interaction for a letter carrier to possibly suffer an injury.”
USPS reiterates that their carriers are trained to handle situations where dogs are present. They are taught to always respect a dog’s territory but to also be alert for any potential dangerous conditions.
However, USPS also remind dog owners the consequences of a dog attack and how they could possibly be responsible for things like the carrier’s medical bills, lost wages, and uniform replacement costs.
“The U.S. Postal Service consistently encourages responsible pet ownership. The national dog bite campaign is an effort to promote dog bite awareness to keep our customers, their dogs, and letter carriers safe while delivering the mail,” Theriault explains.
