July 8, 2019 10.29 am This story is over 62 months old

Royal Mail marks Lincolnshire as dog attack hotspot

Royal Mail has launched its Dog Awareness Week
Stock image of a postal worker. Photo: Royal Mail

A sharp increase in dog attacks in Lincolnshire in the last year has seen 37% more postmen and women injured, making it one of the highest risk areas for dog attacks in the county.

Some 2,484 dog attacks have taken place on postmen and women across the UK in the last year. The number of dog attacks has risen across the country by 9% compared with the previous year.

On average there are around 47 attacks taking place each week across the UK, with some leading to a permanent and disabling injury. In the last year 883 (35%) of dog attacks on postal workers happened at the front door or in the garden.

Royal Mail is advising people to make sure that, whenever a postman or woman calls at home to deliver a parcel or a letter, the dog is secured in a safe place so that it cannot come in contact with them.

Stock image

Anyone failing to control their dog which causes injury to one of Royal Mail’s postal workers could see a prosecution taken against them.

One owner from Romford paid fines and costs of £9,000 after his dog injured a postwoman’s fingers as she put letters through the door. Another owner from Oxford was handed a 16-month suspended prison sentence and banned from owning dogs for life after his dog badly injured a postman’s hand.

Dr Shaun Davis, Royal Mail Group Global Director of Safety, Health, Wellbeing & Sustainability said: “With 2,484 dog attacks having taken place on our postmen and women across the UK in the last year, the issue of dog attacks remains a real concern for us all at Royal Mail – a business that values its people enormously.

“The number of attacks still remains unacceptably high – over a six-day working week this top line figure equates to seven attacks per day. What is concerning is that the number of dog attacks on postmen and women has risen across the country by 9%, compared with the previous year.

“In several postcode areas the number of attacks has risen sharply, for example in three of our postcode areas attacks have more than trebled. Dog owners need to be even more vigilant.”

Royal Mail has launched its seventh successive Dog Awareness Week from Monday, July 8 to encourage responsibly dog ownership – for more information click here. A special Dog Awareness Week postmark will be applied to all stamped items from July 8 to Saturday, July 13, 2019.