Mail Carrier Dog Bites Up in 2016

 The trend in growing online retail sales have proved to be a welcome shot in the arm for the U.S. Postal Service and other package delivery companies. However, this comes at a cost. According to a news report in The New York Times, dog bites involving postal workers have increased in 2016. Numbers released by USPS show that dog attacks on mail carriers rose last year to 6,755, up by 206 incidents from the previous year, and mark the highest in 30 years. Officials say this increase comes with Internet shopping booms and consumers demanding seven-day-a-week package delivery and grocery delivery at their doorstep.

Increase in Dog Attacks
Los Angeles topped the 2016 list with 80 attacks on postal workers followed by Houston with 62 and Cleveland with 60. These numbers were released by the Postal Service as part of National Dog Bite Prevention Week. Workers’ compensation and medical expenses relating to dog bites cost the Postal Service millions of dollars each year. About 4.5 million people in the United States are bitten by dogs every year and a majority of them are children. In the last year, dog attacks on mail carriers increased by 3 percent.
An analysis of homeowners’ insurance data by the Insurance Information Institute found that while the number of dog bite claims went down in 2014 by 4.7 percent, the average cost per claim for the year rose by 15 percent. According to those 2014 numbers, New York had the third largest number of dog bite claims in the country at 965. At the same time, New York also registered the highest average cost per claim in the country at $56,628.
Tips for Homeowners
There are several steps homeowners can take to prevent their pets from attacking mail carriers or package delivery workers. Here are a few tips:
• Never allow dogs to roam loose, be it on your own property or in your neighborhood or community.
• Keep your dog restrained when mail carriers or other package delivery workers come to your home.
• When you open your door to allow your letter carrier to sign for an item or receive a package, be sure to first put your dog in another room and close the door.
• Don’t take your mail or package directly from your mail carrier in front of your dog. Your pets may interpret this seemingly normal action as a threat.
• Obedience training can teach a dog proper behavior. It also helps owners better control their dogs.
• Spay or neuter your dogs. Spayed or neutered dogs are less likely to roam.
• Don’t leave your dog tied up or without attention for long periods of time. Studies show that such dogs frequently turn into biters.
• Put a muzzle on your dog when the mail carrier comes to your home.
Dog Attacks Are Painful and Costly
Dog attacks have the potential to result in severe or even fatal injuries. The seriousness of dog bite injuries may depend on the size of the dog, the number of dogs attacking, the age and size of the victim, etc. Some of the common injuries suffered in dog attacks include, but are not limited to, lacerations, puncture wounds, broken bones, nerve damage, etc.
Severely injured victims may require limb amputations. Many others require costly cosmetic surgery to fix scars caused by bite marks. Some of these scars may never go away despite multiple cosmetic surgeries. Victims also tend to suffer emotional trauma and may require counseling and treatment to address issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, panic attacks and other psychological conditions spurred by a traumatic attack.
Dog bite victims can seek compensation from the at-fault dog owner for damages including, but not limited to, medical expenses, lost wages and benefits, hospitalization, cost of cosmetic surgery, permanent injuries, past and future pain and suffering, etc. The services of a knowledgeable dog bite lawyer will be invaluable here as proving that a dog owner’s negligence caused the attack can often be quite challenging.
Compensation for Victims
As many homeowners’ insurance policies cover dog bite injuries and attacks, a victim should ask the dog owner for information, including his or her insurance company’s name, contact information, policy and claim numbers and the amount of money that is available to pay medical expenses.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a dog attack, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at The Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. For over 49 years, we have helped dog bite victims and their families get fair and full compensation for their losses. Our law firm recovered $750,000 for a girl who was bitten by a dog, which was the most money recovered in New York State that year for a dog bite.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury cases in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/04/06/us/politics/ap-us-postal-dog-attacks.html