Royal Mail says homes with loose dogs could have post ‘suspended’ | UK | News

Royal Mail is urging dog owners to undertake certain actions – or risk having their post “suspended” after thousands of posties were attacked by dogs over the last year alone.

Some postal workers have sustained life-altering injuries, prompting Royal Mail to make a direct plea to pet owners: “please help us protect your postie”. The company warns that mail delivery can be stopped, albeit temporarily, if a dog is loose outside a property.

Owners are also being encouraged to secure their dogs away from the door when answering it and to think about installing letter cages or external postboxes to prevent bites through the letterbox.

Kirsteen Hobson, a postwoman for a decade, suffered severe facial injuries from a brutal dog attack. Recalling her terrifying experience, she said: “The gentleman I was delivering to was standing, kind of half hanging, outside his door.

“I got about two thirds of the way and next thing I know there’s a dog on my face and it ripped my lip off. I didn’t see the dog come at me, my first view of the dog was when it was attached to my face … Somehow I managed to get the dog off me, and then it lunged at my face again, biting me under the eye and on my forehead.”

“I somehow got the dog off me again and I turned around to get away from it, and it sunk its teeth into my leg, into my thigh”, she continued, revealing how the harrowing incident continues to haunt “every aspect of my life”.

Kirsteen elaborated: “It’s not something that I’d like anyone else to experience, which is why I wanted to share this so it hopefully doesn’t happen [again], it can be prevented.”

To help prevent such incidents, the Royal Mail website offers a downloadable postcard that people can print out and display in their door or window.

The postal company further advises: “If we are delivering to your home address and you have a dog, help us deliver safely by keeping it secure and out of the way before your postie arrives.”