As part of National Dog Bite Awareness Week, the United States Postal Service released its dog bite numbers which showed that Chicago ranked second in the nation for dog bites of postal workers, with 59 attacks. The same survey showed that Illinois ranked sixth in the nation for dog bites of postal workers. The Postal Service released a list of tips to reduce the number of dog bites for postal carriers. The dog bite lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer have handled dog bite cases for delivery people and dog bite attorney, Peter Zneimer notes that these tips would apply not only to postal workers but to any person delivering something to a residence, such as pizza delivery people, Door Dash or Uber Eats delivery people, or Amazon delivery people:
* If a delivery person comes to the front door, put the family dog in a separate room with a door and close the door. The dog bite lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer have litigated more than one dog bite case where the home owner lost control of their dog when a delivery person was at the door and the dog powered through the door crack or pushed the screen door open to bite the delivery person who the dog viewed as a threat.
* Do not take a pizza, food delivery or package directly from the delivery person’s hands into your own hands with the family dog in striking range. The family dog may view this motion as a threat to the dog owner and may bite the delivery person to protect its owner from the perceived threat. This is a common one. The dog bite attorneys of Zneimer & Zneimer, are currently litigating two cases where the pizza delivery persons (our clients) were bit by the home owner’s dog while in the the act of handing the pizza to the home owner.
Finally, just because a family dog has never bitten someone before doesn’t mean it won’t bite someone in the future. Almost every dog bite case the Chicago personal injury lawyers of Zneimer and Zneimer have litigated involved a dog that never bit someone before. Not only does the person getting bit suffer, but a dog that seriously injures someone will most likely have to be put down. These bad outcomes, however, can easily be avoided by exercising a little precaution.