There were 1,916 dog attacks on postal employees logged throughout the year to March 31 2023, the Royal Mail said on Monday.
This is up 14% on the 1,673 reported dog attacks on Royal Mail staff the previous year.
Some “posties” suffered major injuries, consisting of one female who has actually revealed she required surgical treatment after she was savaged by a dog.
The postal service business has actually launched the figures at the state of the yearly ‘dog awareness week’, as employers prompt owners “take proper measures to ensure their pets pose no threat to postal workers through responsible dog ownership”.
Staff in the Tunbridge Wells postcode location reported the most occurrences throughout the year to 31 March 2023, with 65 employees suffering attacks, it said.
The Belfast and Sheffield postal code locations which, respectively, represented 56 and 50 reports, saw the next greatest rates.
Some 902 dog attacks, or 47%, happened at the front door, while a more 515, 27%, occurred in the garden, drive or backyard and 118, 6%, happened in the street or roadway.
There were 381 injuries suffered through the letterbox, representing 20% of attacks on postal employees.
Letterbox attacks were the topic of a 2020 High Court judgment that specified dog owners, or those caring for a dog, can be prosecuted if their family pets have open door to the letterbox and trigger injury to any shipment employees, the Royal Mail kept in mind.
Dog attacks on postal employees led to more than 3,014 days of lack in 2015.
Kimberley Link, 50, had actually been a postwoman for 2 years and was based in Eltham, south-east London, when she was whipped by a “big dog” in July 2022.
She was off work for 6 months after the attack, which resulted in its owner being prosecuted and the animal being killed, the Royal Mail said.
While providing mail, she said the dog “suddenly appeared” behind the owner, who was not able to obstruct its exits from inside her home prior to it assaulted her.
She said: “I understood he was loose and relied on escape, however he leapt up at me from behind and secured onto my left elbow.
“I can keep in mind the dog pulling me to the flooring then releasing my elbow and after that attempting to bite into the back of my neck.
“I had my hair in a long ponytail and a baseball cap on, so that stopped it from getting a grip on the back of my neck.
“The attack then stopped, I don’t know whether the customer managed to get hold of the dog and pulled him off me, but one of her neighbours appeared as she had heard me screaming.”
An ambulance hurried her to medical facility, where an X-ray revealed “the dog’s tooth was still in (Ms Link’s) elbow”.
She was moved to another medical facility since she required a cosmetic surgeon and was run on when to eliminate the dog’s tooth, and after that once again “to try and repair the nerve damage”.
“I then had a third operation for a skin graft, that took skin from my thigh for my elbow,” she said.
She remained in medical facility for a week and needed physiotherapy.
“I’ve now got bad scarring on my elbow and a large patch where I have no feeling or sensation due to the skin graft,” she included.
“I’ve also got permanent nerve damage to my hand so I can’t grip my hand properly.”
She was later on provided a management position which she took as “couldn’t have faced going back on that round”.
“My message to any customer who owns a dog it would be to never assume that their dog is going to be all right when strangers come to the door,” she said.
“Dogs are defensive of their home, so, if possible, put them in another room before opening the door to the postie because most dogs will try and push their way past their owner to the door.”
The dog owner received a 12-month neighborhood order of 100 hours unsettled work and was bought to pay £1,200 payment to the victim, while a damage order was provided for the dog, the Royal Mail said.
Lizz Lloyd, health and wellness director, Royal Mail, said “we are concerned to see attacks on our staff have increased this year” and prompted consumers “to consider the danger unsupervised dogs pose to our colleagues”.
