Postal workers working for Britain’s Royal Mail have faced almost 2,200 dog attacks over the past year, marking a 2% annual increase in such incidents.
This equates to roughly 42 dog attacks targeting postal workers per week — with some causing permanent injuries and leading to disabilities, according to data released on Monday by Britain’s main postal service.
Figures shared by the UK’s Communication Workers Union also revealed that over a longer period — ranging from 2017 to 2024 — a third of all dog attacks across the UK targeted postal delivery workers.
Over the past decade, roughly 30,000 postal workers have been attacked by dogs.
‘I could see the flesh on my leg hanging’
Ellenore King-Voisin, has worked as a postwoman in Farnborough — a city in southeast England — for the past three years. But in June last year, what was meant to be a normal day at work, turned out to be a traumatic experience.
“I was delivering mail to a property on my round that I had been to many times before,” she told Royal Mail
“The customers there were very proud of the two rescue dogs they had. I had seen the dogs before so was aware that one of them had an aggressive temperament.”
On the day of the attack, the dogs’ owner — who was working on his car which was parked at the front of the property — had left the front door open. However, when King-Voisin walked up the drive to the deliver the man’s post, things took a turn for the worse.
“I noticed the calmer of the two dogs at the door. She looked at me and I froze. The dog then went back inside and then both dogs returned to the door and at that point I realised I just didn’t stand a chance”, said King-Voisin.
“The dog jumped up at me and bit me three times just above the right knee. When I looked down, I could see the flesh on my leg hanging and the fat tissue that had literally burst open looked like little yellow marbles on the floor. I’d never seen anything like it before”, added King-Voisin.
Eventually, King-Voisin managed to save herself.
“I knew that the dog would not stop attacking me if I didn’t do something, so I started screaming, and then the owner and his daughter came rushing out,” she recalled. “I also startled the dog as she ran back into the house. I had to do my own First Aid as the man and his daughter were crying.”
From front door to garden
Despite the overall rise in attacks over the last year, a 10% decrease in attacks causing serious and significant injury to postal workers was recorded, with 74 significant logged incidents compared to 82 in 2023-24.
But in a similat trend to previous years, nearly half of all dog attacks (46%) targeting postal workers took place at the front door, while more than a quarter (28%) took place in the garden, drive or yard. Nearly a fifth of attacks (18%) happened through letterboxes and a total of 8% of attacks occurred in the street or road.
In a bid to protect its workforce, the UK’s Post Office recommends the public prints off and displays on their property a post card that warns postal workers that they own a dog. It also asks them to wait whilst owners secure their dog before opening the door.
In 2020, a High Court ruling declared that stated dog owners (or those in care of a dog) could be prosecuted if their pets have free access to the letterbox and cause injury to any postal or delivery worker — whether the owner is at home or not.
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