Mail Workers March in Call for Protection Against Dogs

About 130 postal workers, supported by their management, staged a march and rally in Highland Park on Sunday to publicize a new “get-tough” policy against dog owners who don’t keep their animals from attacking mail carriers.

“Restrain your dog,” the marchers yelled at passing motorists whose pets barked at the spectacle from open car windows.

Their purpose, the marchers said, was to draw attention to what they described as a dramatic increase in the number of Los Angeles letter carriers who have recently suffered dog bites in the course of performing their duties. The message to the public: Control your dog or face possible legal action.

“The dogs are not the problem, the owners are,” said Pat Freeman, a letter carrier who helped organize the event.

She and other postal workers got the idea for the march and rally, she said, after reading about an incident earlier this summer in which an animal control officer was mauled by a pit bull terrier in nearby Glassell Park. “It could have been any one of us,” said Freeman, who works in Hollywood. “Letter carriers are out there every day.”

Although Sunday’s event was organized by the carriers themselves, it was supported by postal management, which has noted the recent increase in dog-related injuries. So far this year, said David Mazer, communications manager for the Los Angeles postal service, 93 letter carriers have been bitten by dogs citywide, a 24% increase over the number for the same period last year. “That’s dramatic,” Mazer said, estimating that the cost has been about $100,000 in medical expenses and at least the same amount in lost time. “We are now encouraging the carriers to sue customers (whose dogs bite the carriers.).”

Owners Liable

California law makes dog owners liable for any injuries their animals cause. And a recent spate of dog attacks has resulted in efforts to strengthen an existing city ordinance aimed at controlling vicious animals.

The carriers attribute this year’s increase in injuries to the fact that more people, apparently concerned about crime, are purchasing guard dogs and then are failing to properly restrain the animals.

While carriers routinely carry cans of Mace to protect themselves, he said, they do not always have enough advance warning of an impending attack to use them. And with some breeds, the workers say, the chemical repellent is simply ineffective.

“Pit bulls don’t mind it,” said Alyce Alford, superintendent of operations at the Village Station in Westwood. “They like it. They eat it.”

But marchers were quick to point out that pit bulls aren’t the only breed causing the problem. Lawrence Brown Jr., a postal carrier for 21 years, said he once lost more than a year of work after being viciously bitten on the lower calf by two Pekinese dogs that broke through the screen door of a house on his mail route. “You become a little paranoid,” he said. “You hear a dog bark or a kid talk and you turn around. There’s enough hazard on the street as it is without having to go into a yard and be attacked by a dog. It’s insane.”

Takes Precautions

And for Frank Jurado, who was bitten last year by a dog that he can describe only as “shaggy,” the result has been traumatic. “Now I’m very careful,” he said. “Once I hear those dogs barking, I just pass the house by and let them get their mail tomorrow.”

According to Mazer, Postal Department regulations do not require mail carriers to expose themselves to dangerous situations.

Beginning at the Highland Park Post Office--chosen because its employees have experienced a particularly high number of dog attacks--the mail carriers, many of them bearing scars, marched more than a mile down North Figueroa Street to Sycamore Grove Park where they held a picnic and rally that included speakers representing their union, postal management and city government.

“All we want is to do our jobs,” Freeman told the crowd. “If (owners) would just keep their dogs restrained, we wouldn’t have this problem.”