Dog attacks threat to postal delivery

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 3

Dog attacks threat to postal delivery

By

CHRIS MAHONY and JEREMY KIRK

Christchurch and Timaru dog owners have been warned that postal delivery to their homes — and possibly to every home in their street — could be threatened if their dogs harass posties.

New Zealand Post management in Christchurch and Timaru say dog attacks on staff are an “ongoing problem.” The manager of the Timaru mail centre, Mr John Dunnage, said it seemed “pretty bad right now.”

New Zealand Post bought an ultrasonic beeper for staff in each centre a month ago as concern began to mount about dog attacks.

“A| number (of staff) have been bitten, although we haven’t had any really bad injuries so far, but the person? is always sent to hospital for a tetanus jab,”

Mr Dunnage said

Owners of troublesome dogs were asked to tie them up during mail-de-livery times. Mr Dunnage said most dog owners responded but some cases were referred to the local authority concerned. If dog problems worsened New Zealand Post could stop delivering letters to the houses of offending owners. If the aggressive dog was in a blind street, all postal deliveries to that street could stop if staff were unable to get past the dog. Such action had not

been taken in Timaru but would be considered. Mr Dunnage said German Shepherds, Dobermanns and Rottweilers were the dogs most often bothering posties. The manager of deliveries for Christchurch, Mr Colin Keen, said his department had stopped deliveries to addresses, but this was rare. Concern about dog problems had led to the buying of an ultrasonic beeper which emits a noise, supposedly calming to dogs/ Mr Dunnage has a word of caution about the wonder devices — “A man

used it on a dog owned by a friend and it attacked him — it had never attacked anybody else.” A postman he had spoken to yesterday said the device seemed to work with most dogs but it had sent one into an even more agitated state.

Mr Keen said Christchurch posties had found the beeper very effective. The first two weeks of a 15-week trial had shown that dogs either ran away at the sound or sat still. If the beeper proved successful, New Zealand Post would consider buying more, he said.