( /what/corporate-social-responsibility/activities/dog-bite-awareness.htm) The Postal Service places the safety of its employees as a top priority and dedicates a week each year to Dog Bite Awareness. When a dog attacks a letter carrier, the dog owner could be held liable for all medical expenses, repayment of lost work hours, replacement of the uniform and other costs, which can run into thousands of dollars. It takes a long time to get over the fear.” “I’m still scared when I get close to that house because I remember the attack so vividly. “It happened so fast, even with all my training, I barely had time to react,” Toliver told co-workers at an event at the Dearborn Post Office. The modern-day travelers are toys that elementary school teachers across the US use to teach geography to their classes.(NAPSI)-Can you picture a member of your family attacking a mail carrier? Of course, you couldn’t, but it happened 5,803 times last year across the nation.ĭearborn, MI, Letter Carrier Tameka Toliver recalls being pinned on a porch by a dog that bit her above her knee.

Several children’s books have been written about the well-traveled pup, and he has inspired the creation of contemporary traveling Owneys. Owney’s adventures continue to fascinate children and adults alike. In 1911, the department transferred Owney to the Smithsonian Institution. Mail clerks raised money for preserving their mascot, and he was taken to the Post Office Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Toledo postmaster believed the dog had become uncontrollable and asked the local sheriff to put him down, which he did on June 11, 1897. In June 1897, while Owney was in Toledo, Ohio, he bit a mail clerk and snapped at his handlers. A postal clerk briefly took Owney into his home in St. The dog traveled with mailbags on steamships and trains from Tacoma through Asia, the Middle East, and the continental US before returning to Tacoma 113 days later.īy 1897 Owney had taken ill twice, had become occasionally ill-tempered, and moved with difficulty. In 1895 the Tacoma, Washington, postmaster sent Owney on a trip around the world as part of an advertising campaign for the city. Occasionally a postal worker would collect several of the tags and send them to the Albany post office or the Post Office Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. After Postmaster General John Wanamaker heard of this problem, he had a harness made for the dog that could be used to display the tags more evenly over Owney’s body while he traveled. Owney received so many tags on his trips that their weight around his neck began to weigh the poor dog down. These items included baggage check and hotel room key tokens, dog licenses, and numerous items given to the dog by a variety of individuals and organizations. Postal workers and others began to mark Owney’s travels by placing tokens, tags, and medals on his collar. and then the country! The Railway Mail Service clerks adopted Owney as their unofficial mascot. Owney began to ride with the bags on Railway Mail Service (RMS) trains across the state. He soon began to follow mailbags, first onto mail wagons and then mail trains.

Owney was attracted to the texture or scent of the mailbags and when his master moved away, Owney stayed with his new mail clerk friends. His owner was likely a postal clerk who let the dog walk him to work. Owney was a scruffy mutt who became a regular fixture at the Albany, New York, post office in 1888.

Postal 2 dog picture