Some cliches are true, and some people are simply not cut out to keep dogs as companions.
We're nearing the end of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, and the United States Postal Service shot out an email today that included a couple of spreadsheets outlining EVERY TIME A LETTER CARRIER WAS VICTIMIZED BY A DOG IN 2017, broken down by city. Yeah, they love their paperwork and stats, the USPS, but this exhaustive bit of background includes some interesting facts about where, and where in Florida, the folks tasked with walking up to strangers' doors on a daily basis are putting their bodies at risk because some dog owners are incompetent, irresponsible or just plain stupid.
For instance, there were a total of 6,244 reported attacks in the U.S. last year. The city with the most attacks? Houston, TX, with 71, followed closely by L.A. with 67. The Florida city with the highest number? Miami, far and away, with 25; Orlando had the second-highest number at 12. The vast majority of cities nationwide that made the list made it by dint of a single attack.
Several Bay area municipalities made the list, and a second spreadsheet compares the number of attacks that occurred in each in 2017 with the number from 2016. Tampa, the local city with the highest number, had 10 attacks last year, compared to 11 in '16. St. Petersburg is next at 7 attacks, down from 12 the previous year; Clearwater also bettered its score and came down from four to three incidents. Several smaller Bay area locales made the list with one or two attacks, and a few, like Brooksville, Bradenton, Safety Harbor, Seminole, and St. Pete Beach, are on the list because they had attacks in '16, but brought that number down to zero last year.
Remember, just because your dog is friendly doesn't mean he won't see a stranger as a threat. The USPS recommends that you put your dog in another room and close the door before opening the front door for a letter carrier, and that you never take a package hand-to-hand from a letter carrier in front of your dog.
You can see the top 30 cities for attacks in 2017 here.
