Now that the weather is warming up, more Missouri dog owners are getting eager to arrive home from work, grab their leash and take their little canine friends out for a nice walk. It also means that their pets will be outside more often even when they are not at home. While that sounds like great news for pet owners, other people bound to walk by their houses in the next few months might disagree.
Unfortunately, many dog owners in the Midwestern states still haven’t fully disciplined their pets to prevent them from attacking friends or visitors. This is a major problem for people with jobs that revolve around walking by an owner’s house. The following workers should take precautions to avoid a serious workplace injury:
Mail carriers
Mail carriers are still one of the primary victims of dog bites to this day. A recent study by the U.S. Postal Service reveals that Kansas City and St. Louis were among the top 20 cities in the U.S. with the most of amount of dog attacks on postal employees in 2018.
While the attacks have decreased in recent years thanks to new technology warning carriers about upcoming addresses with dogs, owners are still warned to keep their dogs inside in a separate room if the carrier delivers mail to the front door. Carriers should be on the lookout for any fences or signs that the owner might have a pet before making their delivery.
Food delivery services
Dogs might have even more incentive to go after a delivery person from the owner’s favorite pizza or sandwich restaurant when they arrive at the house. They may be less familiar than the local mailman that comes every day, and the hot, fresh food they are carrying may trigger some hunger aggression.
One advantage that pizza delivery workers have over mail carriers is that there is more of a guarantee that the owner is home when they make the delivery. Not only will the owner see them, but most services these days also ask for the customer’s phone number in case they need special delivery instructions.
Dog walkers
Professional dog walkers in Missouri may be trained on handling any kind of breed, but they can’t get rid of all of Fido’s bad behavior. The owner needs to make sure that their pet can handle other dogs and people before leaving it with a walker for the day.
Most dog walkers typically come with warning letters that absolve them of liability if the owner’s dog attacks them or someone else. The only exception would be if a witness saw that they were clearly the aggressor in the situation.
Unfortunately, most of these employees that thrive in the outdoors suffer just from doing their jobs. Owners that expect these workers to pass by their house should make more efforts to discipline their dogs or provide a safe way for people to approach their place without getting attacked. Those that fail to do so could face a personal injury lawsuit in the near future.
