To mark the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) 2024 National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign, the organization released its annual figures on dogs attacking postal workers.
According to the USPS, there were more than 5,800 incidents of postal workers being attacked by dogs in 2023.
That’s up from more than 5,300 in 2022.
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There were a record 727 dog attacks on postal workers in California last year, up from 675 in 2022, the group said.
In 2023, California and Texas had the most dog bite incidents committed by postal workers. (Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe via Getty Images, Michael Paulsen/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Texas ranked second with 411 cases in 2023 and 404 cases in 2022.
Ohio State ranked third with 359 attacks in 2023 and 311 in 2022.
Following are Pennsylvania with 334 cases, Illinois with 316, New York with 296, Florida with 193, North Carolina with 185, Michigan with 183 and Missouri with 180.
The top 10 cities where attacks occurred were Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, San Diego, Dallas, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio.
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The USPS 2024 National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign begins June 2nd and runs through June 9th.
According to the USPS, the theme of this year’s campaign is “Don’t let your dog bite the hand that’s helping you.”
In recent years, there has been an increase in dog bites by postal workers. (Ron Antonelli/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Mail carriers are exposed to potential dangers every day, none more common than encounters with dogs. It only takes one interaction for a mail carrier to be injured,” Leanne Theriault, USPS manager of employee safety and health awareness, said on the organization’s website.
“The United States Postal Service has always encouraged responsible pet ownership, and our national dog bite prevention campaign is an effort to raise awareness of dog bites to help keep customers, their dogs and mail carriers safe while delivering mail.”
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To mark the 2024 campaign, the USPS has outlined steps dog owners can take to help keep mail carriers safe.
Because mail is delivered to homes at roughly the same time each day, the USPS instructs people to keep their dogs inside the house, in a fenced-in area, away from the door, or on a leash during the normal hours when the mail carrier is expected to arrive.
Use Informed Delivery, a free service offered by the USPS, to track when your mail will arrive. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
Mail recipients can also track the estimated arrival time of their mail or package using Informed Delivery, a free service offered by the USPS.
This is an additional way to know when to put your dog under extra supervision.
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When a mail carrier is bitten by a dog, the average cost per dog bite insurance claim is $64,555, according to the latest Insurance Institute data shared by the USPS.
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