Over the last year, twelve incidents of post people being attacked and physically injured by dogs on the Isle of Man have been reported; however, many more "near misses" and stand offs with dogs are often never formally accounted for.
Isle of Man Post Office will not put its delivery and collection staff in a position of danger where the risk of being bitten by a dog is high. If the Post Office believes that by entering a customer's premises it may put a post person in a potentially dangerous situation, it will be unable to deliver mail to that address and will have to ask the customer to collect it while the risk exists. This is obviously a last resort and the Post Office would encourage all customers to keep their pets under control, protecting its employees so that they can continue to provide the normal postal service.
There is current legislation on the Isle of Man in regard to dogs, the Isle of Man Dogs Act 1990, amended 2006, and Isle of Man Post Office may pursue legal action against a dog owner should they be in breach of this regulation.
Isle of Man Post Office would like all dog owners to observe the following:
• Please display a warning notice if your dog is likely to be in the garden
• Please provide an alternative method of delivering to your address if your dog is likely to become agitated by a post person - maybe a delivery box by the entrance to your premises
Commenting on the situation, Geoff Rickard General Manager, Mails said: "Isle of Man Post Office takes the safety of its employees very seriously - particularly our frontline post people who deliver and collect mail.
We need to try to prevent attacks and injury to our employees whilst they are delivering to and collecting from our customers' premises. We currently have an internal campaign running to raise awareness of animal attacks amongst our staff including advice as to how to prevent incidents. In addition to this, we really need our customers' help to protect their posties."
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