Dog startled by sudden movement bit mail carrier's leg

A dog at a home in Davie greeted a mail carrier Thursday afternoon and bit the worker after it was startled by the worker’s sudden movement, Davie Police said.

The Portuguese water dog, which belongs to the owner of the home in the 5800 block of Peppertree Circle, bit the worker’s upper leg, Davie Police Det. Peter Patton said in an email.

The mail carrier was taken to a hospital to be treated for a minor cut, Patton said. The owner gave an animal resource officer the dog’s vaccination records, and it was not removed from the home.

Debra Jean Flattery, a South Florida USPS spokesperson, said in an email Friday they cannot comment on the incident for privacy reasons.

The cliché exists for good reason: The bites are enough of a problem for the postal service to run a week-long public service campaign each year to make pet owners aware of the safety risks dogs pose for mail carriers. The theme of this year’s campaign in June was, “Even good dogs have bad days.”

More than 5,300 U.S. Postal Service workers were attacked by dogs while making deliveries in 2022. In Florida, 220 postal workers were bitten last year, with 17 in Broward County, 14 in Palm Beach County and 21 in Miami, according to the agency’s data.

“Many attacks reported by letter carriers came from dogs whose owners regularly stated, ‘My dog won’t bite,'” USPS said in a news release this June. One of the things postal workers are trained about is how to not startle dogs.

Customers can indicate whether a dog lives at their address when they use the package pickup application on usps.com, Jean Flattery said, and the information is shared on carriers’ delivery scanners.

“Our carriers are trained to use their mail satchel as the first line of defense, which can be wielded like a soft shield, and they are equipped to carry pepper spray,” Jean Flattery said. “If a loose dog is known to be on the carrier’s delivery route, the address can be programmed into their delivery scanner, and an alert will pop up when they approach that area to warn them.”

USPS offered the following tips for pet owners during its safety campaign:

“Lastly, when a carrier feels unsafe, mail service could be halted — not only for the dog owner, but for the entire neighborhood,” the postal service said.