USPS urges Onondaga County dog owners to protect mail carriers
Syracuse carriers were bitten six times last year as USPS tells Onondaga County dog owners to secure pets before mail arrives.
USPS used National Dog Bite Awareness Month in June to warn Onondaga County dog owners that one unsecured pet can injure a carrier and disrupt delivery for an entire block. The 2026 campaign theme was “Don’t Turn Your Back on Dog Bite Prevention,” and the Postal Service said dog attacks remained its most prominent threat.
In Fairmount, carrier Bob DeLorenzo put a local face on the risk. DeLorenzo, who has delivered mail across Central New York for 19 years, said he had been bitten twice on the job. In one case, he said, a dog came around the side of a house and bit his arm as he lifted his mail bag. In another, a smaller dog waited until he turned away before biting him on the back of the leg. USPS said Syracuse had six mail carriers bitten by dogs last year.
DeLorenzo said the first defense is to read the property before stepping up to a house. He pointed carriers and residents to warning signs that a dog may be nearby, including chains, leads and even toys in the yard. USPS backs that caution with its own tools, including dog repellent, updated dog warning cards and alerts on carriers’ mobile devices.
The Postal Service’s advice to owners was simple: put the dog in a separate room before opening the front door, secure pets away from the delivery point and use Informed Delivery and package tracking so you know when the carrier is coming. USPS also used last year’s campaign slogan, “Secure Your Dog, Keep Deliveries on Track,” to push the same message: the safest delivery is the one that never becomes a dog encounter.
The numbers showed why the agency kept pressing the point. USPS said employees suffered more than 5,200 dog attacks last year, down from about 6,000 in 2024 and more than 5,800 in 2023. That still left thousands of incidents nationwide, with Syracuse among the communities where the problem had already reached neighborhood level. One loose dog can force a carrier to change how a street is served, turning a routine delivery into a workplace hazard for every home on the route.
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