Philadelphia Ranks #5 on U.S. list of Postal Mail Carrier Dog Bites
Mail carriers and dogs have been the subject matter of many a comedy scene, however dog attacks are no laughing matter for mail carries in Philadelphia. Annual reports released by the U.S. Postal Service lists Philadelphia as #5 on the list of top cities in the United States with the most dog bite attacks in 2012, with a total of 34 incidents.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year. One in five of those bitten, about 885,000, require medical treatment for their injuries.
In addition to scarring and the risk of rabies, infection adds to the list of complications from dog bite injuries. A single mother of four lost both of her legs and one of her arms when an accidental bite from one of her pets led to an infection that put her into septic shock.
The following is a list from the U.S. Postal Service of the Top 15 cities with Dog Bites in 2012:
- Los Angeles, CA – 69
- San Antonio, TX & Seattle, WA – 42
- Chicago, IL – 41
- San Francisco, CA – 38
- Philadelphia, PA – 34
- Detroit, MI – 33
- St. Louis, MO – 32
- Baltimore, MD – 29
- Sacramento, CA – 29
- Houston, TX & Minneapolis, MN – 27
- Cleveland, OH & Dayton, OH – 26
- Buffalo, NY & Brooklyn, NY – 24
- Denver, CO – 23
- Dallas, TX & Tacoma, WA – 21
- Wichita, KS – 20
Territorial instinct has a strong influence on a dog’s behavior. Territory grows bigger as the dog grows until adulthood when territorial instinct becomes their owner’s home, and their pack instinct to their human family. Owning a dog includes the responsibility to protect mail carries from on-the-job injury by the family dog.