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Like baseball and apple pie, dogs biting mailmen is something of an American tradition — not a tradition the Postal Service is particularly pleased with, mind you.
Letter carriers actually do get attacked by dogs every year (more than 5,500 in 2013), and Phoenix is now one of the top spots for dog attacks on mailmen.
See also:
–10 Things Everyone Needs to Know About Pit Bulls
Phoenix didn’t even crack the list of the Postal Service’s list of top 20 cities for dog attacks on mailmen last year, but Phoenix made it this year.
The Postal Service reports 32 dog attacks on mailmen in Phoenix in 2013, which was the 11th-most in the nation, tied with Minneapolis.
The top 10, in order, are: Houston, Los Angeles, Cleveland, San Diego, Chicago, Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Columbus, and Kansas City.
Phoenix dogs haven’t made the list since 2011, when they went after 38 mailmen.
The Postal Service releases this list every year, as part of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, an effort to make people more responsible owners.
With more than 5,500 dog bites on mailmen last year, that equates to about 1 in every 850 dog bite victims in the country being a mailman.
Got a tip? Send it to: Matthew Hendley.
Follow Valley Fever on Twitter at @ValleyFeverPHX.
Follow Matthew Hendley at @MatthewHendley.
