Mailbag
This evening I was engaged in the time-honored tradition of finding the surface of my desk. When mail arrives at my house, my modus operandi is to sort out the important mail (bills) from the unimportant (everything else). The important mail gets dealt with in a timely fashion. The unimportant mail sits on my dining table until motivation strikes me to sift and shred. Because of this shelf time, I missed the following gem from my local post office:
The test goes on to explain the problems the Post Office (not those 2 million children) experiences with dog bites, from ripped clothing to severe injuries.
So, in addition to paying the salaries, medical expenses, workers comp of the bitten employees, I get the added expense of these stupid mailers, all for letter carriers who account for 0.08% of the total dog bites in a year?
Now, I grew up attending school with a boy whose face had some serious scars from a pit bull attack, and I'm never pleased to read about any animal attack. But give me a break. I'm supposed to get all worked up over 0.08% of dog bites, bites on adults?
Then there's this little nugget at the end:
Excuse me, but were I to have a dog, my response would be that the dog lives here. My friends, neighbors, and postman do not. I don't go over to someone's house asking that they keep their children penned up in my presence.
Also, I'd note that because we can never know when the mail will arrive, they're in essence asking us to keep our dogs restrained most of the day - at least until the mail arrives, or we arrive home, whichever comes last.
And last, responsible pet owners will have already taken precautions to make sure their dog won't bite a visitor on the property. So why address this notice to them? Seems to me it would apply to the irresponsible pet owners... you know, the ones who probably binned this card without a second glance.
National Dog Bite Prevention Week (May 21-28)
Recent statistics indicate that over 4 million people were bitten by dogs last year. Half of them were children and 3,475 were letter carriers!
The test goes on to explain the problems the Post Office (not those 2 million children) experiences with dog bites, from ripped clothing to severe injuries.
So, in addition to paying the salaries, medical expenses, workers comp of the bitten employees, I get the added expense of these stupid mailers, all for letter carriers who account for 0.08% of the total dog bites in a year?
Now, I grew up attending school with a boy whose face had some serious scars from a pit bull attack, and I'm never pleased to read about any animal attack. But give me a break. I'm supposed to get all worked up over 0.08% of dog bites, bites on adults?
Then there's this little nugget at the end:
...we are requesting that if you are a responsible dog owner, you would keep your dog restrained during mail delivery hours. Your letter carrier and your friends and neighbors would appreciate it!
Excuse me, but were I to have a dog, my response would be that the dog lives here. My friends, neighbors, and postman do not. I don't go over to someone's house asking that they keep their children penned up in my presence.
Also, I'd note that because we can never know when the mail will arrive, they're in essence asking us to keep our dogs restrained most of the day - at least until the mail arrives, or we arrive home, whichever comes last.
And last, responsible pet owners will have already taken precautions to make sure their dog won't bite a visitor on the property. So why address this notice to them? Seems to me it would apply to the irresponsible pet owners... you know, the ones who probably binned this card without a second glance.
Labels: ineptitude, nanny state
posted by Gospazha at
6:27 PM
