SALT LAKE CITY — Tom Patton has been a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service for 22 years.
“All the people on my route have been so good to me for many years and look after me," he said. "I've made great friends on my route, and I love it.”
Despite being on the same route in Salt Lake City for the last 16 years, dogs still bark at him as if he were a stranger.
“I used to live in this neighborhood," said Patton. "I delivered mail to my own house, and my dogs, not knowing that it was me, would actually become somewhat aggressive, when they would never do that to me if I was just around the house."
This week is the Postal Service's National Dog Bite Awareness Week; more than 5,300 employees were attacked by dogs while delivering mail in the last year, according to USPS. In Utah alone, Patton says there were 38 dog bites.
“We get a lot of carriers attacked and bit by dogs that have never bit anybody, or the owner says that they would never bite anybody," he said. "It happens all the time.”
USPS suggests three ways pet owners can keep their dogs from harming mail carriers at delivery time: keeping dogs inside your house or behind a fence, away from your front door or in another room, or on a leash.
“We've had carriers go up on porches and the front door will be open, but the screen door closed," said Patton. "But once we get up there, those dogs will literally come through the screen to try to attack us.”
Carriers are trained not to startle, pet or feed dogs. But Patton says they also need owners to do their part to make sure their mail is always delivered safely.
“We all just, at the end of the day, want to go home to our families safe and sound," he said.
