Houston is the second most dog-bitten mail carrier

(KTLA) — Los Angeles is famous for a multitude of things, including entertainment, food and traffic, but the City of Angels became famous for a different reason.

According to the United States Postal Service, Los Angeles leads the nation in dog bites to mail carriers. In 2023, the city recorded 65 dog attacks on postal workers, taking first place ahead of Houston, which had 56. Los Angeles was second on last year’s list.

Besides Los Angeles, California cities that made the top 30 included San Diego (6), Sacramento (16), San Francisco (19) and Long Beach (20).

The list of top 30 cities is below:

In the list of states, California also tops with 727 reported dog bites in 2023. This number puts the state more than 300 above second-place Texas.

The list of top 10 states is below:

The report comes as the USPS launches a weeklong initiative starting June 2 to educate dog owners about mail carrier safety.

“Post carriers are exposed to potential dangers every day, none of which are more prevalent than an encounter with a dog. It only takes one interaction for a mail carrier to potentially suffer an injury,” said Leeann Theriault, manager of employee safety and health at USPS. “The U.S. Postal Service consistently encourages responsible pet ownership. The National Dog Bite Campaign is an effort to raise awareness about dog bites to ensure the safety of our customers, their dogs and letter carriers when delivering mail.

According to the USPS, mail carriers are trained on what to do when dogs are in the area.

Some of these lessons include making non-threatening noises to alert a dog to your presence, avoiding startling a dog, refraining from petting or feeding a dog, and placing one foot against a swinging door to prevent a dog to get out.

The USPS advised dog owners to lock their pets behind a gate or fence when postal workers arrive at the home or to keep them on a leash during walks.

“Even if a customer’s dog is friendly to most people, they can still have a bad day,” mail carrier Tara Snyder said in the report. “I know from experience that even when a dog is in the house, customers need to make sure their door is secure so their dog can’t open it and bite the postman.”