I’m a postie who narrowly survived a dog attack. Your ‘best friend’ can be our worst enemy

In my work as a postie, I am constantly aware of the possibility that I might be randomly mauled by a dog, simply for doing my job. Certainly, I am no stranger to it. My own experience of being attacked is a harrowing one – but one that will be familiar to many postal workers.

While on my usual round, I walked towards an address to drop a parcel off. When the person living there opened the door, I noticed a dog was behind them. Although I was a bit hesitant, the owner was quick to reassure me that the dog was “alright” and “wouldn’t harm me”.

If only this had been true. No sooner had they said this, when the dog did push past the owner and take a lunge at me. It grabbed hold of my elbow, sinking into my arm and refusing to let me go.

When the person living at the house tried to grab the dog back, it only paused for a moment before jumping at me a second time – this time attempting to bite the back of my neck. With the dog really trying to hurt me, I ended up on the floor, helpless – this was the only point where the owner finally took control of the situation and got their dog off me.

Getting up, I was hurt and as badly shocked as you might expect. I couldn’t believe what had happened and went to another house, where somebody gave me immediate first aid assistance, as well as calling the ambulance and police. It was exactly what I needed. I’ll forever be grateful for that help.

I don’t want anyone to go through what myself and so many of my colleagues have gone through. The number of dog attacks in Britain at the moment is, truly, a “national crisis”. We need to raise public awareness on the issue – and also campaign for the British government and all devolved authorities to strengthen existing dog laws to protect us.

Us posties love dogs as much as anyone, and we know that the vast majority of dogs are totally fine. But while my colleagues know they need to stay safe and not take risks they don’t need to, the public need to be equally informed about the very real risk that their beloved pets pose to us.

At the end of the day, your best friend could be our worst nightmare – and could leave us with life-changing injuries, or worse. All we want is to be out there, doing our job delivering a vital public service and playing our role in the community. But we can’t do that without your assistance and vigilance in looking out for us.

Posties often worry that the day will come when it’s announced that somewhere in the country, one of their colleagues has been killed by a dog while on shift. I hope that will never happen. But the number of dog attacks are out of control.

Today marks the start of Dog Awareness Week, an annual campaign. Every year, this campaign is one that can’t come quick enough. The statistics speak for themselves: in the last decade alone, more than 33,000 postal workers in this country have been attacked by dogs while on the job.

It is estimated that six of my colleagues get attacked by dogs every single day, and since 2018 over 1,000 of them have had a finger partially or fully bitten off by a dog while at work.

Hopefully, stories like mine – and these kinds of sobering statistics – should cause a few to sit up and take positive action in their households. We need people to listen. We need the government to listen, too.