Canada Post seeks new ways to protect carriers from dog, bear and human attack
Canada Post is looking for a new weapon to protect its carriers from dogs, bears and the occasional violent human.
The Crown corporation is asking manufacturers to come forward with alternatives to the small pepper-spray cans that posties now carry, which can be ineffective in a strong wind or when dogs move too quickly.
“We’re looking for the latest technology or products that are out there to protect our employees,” corporation spokesman John Caines said from Ottawa.
About 300 Canada Post workers are bitten on the job every year, Caines said. Most bites are minor. Some, however, are debilitating.
“I had a gash along my leg – about five inches long and an inch wide – and I had to get a skin graft,” said Gary Garbutt, a retired postal worker who still clearly remembers a 1986 pit bull attack in Winnipeg’s tony Charleswood neighbourhood that left him in hospital for 10 days.
“He got me on the inside of my wrist, too, and made a gash there of about two inches (before the owner called him off).”
Pepper spray might not have made much difference in Garbutt’s case, he said, because the dog was on him before he knew it.
“I turned around, he was eight feet away. He was on my leg before I had a chance to do anything,” Garbutt said.
Two years ago, two pit bulls broke through a screen door in Chatham, Ont., and attacked another mail carrier, breaking both her wrists and tearing off part of an ear.
Some postal workers have used pepper spray successfully, but they say it only works if there is enough time to unholster it and if the dog is downwind.
“I was … trying to get the dog to come at me so that I would be upwind of the dog, so that if I sprayed, it wouldn’t come back at me,” said Bernie Bellan, who has on occasion used pepper spray and some fancy footwork to ward off dog attacks on his Winnipeg route.
Suburban dogs are not the only problem. In rural areas, bears and other larger animals can surprise carriers. The corporation is also concerned about violent people.
“In the case of workplace violence, our delivery personnel carry cheques and signature items; therefore, the potential for assault is present,” reads Canada Post’s request for information from manufacturers, issued last week.
The corporation recently considered an air horn that could scare off animals with a loud noise, but rejected the product because it contained chemicals that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and are subject to stringent rules for the shipment of dangerous goods.
The post office tried another method several years ago – a small electronic device that emitted a high-pitched sound that hurts dog ears but cannot be heard by humans.
“There was a light that was supposed to come on to tell you it was working, but you really didn’t know,” Bellan said.
Workers sometimes turn to unofficial weapons of their own. Garbutt used his keys on occasion, saying sometimes the jangling sound of them was enough to convince a big dog to turn around.
After his hospital stay, Garbutt decided to be more prepared the next time he delivered mail to the home where he was attacked.
“I had a bigger tool that I was going to beat him with – a piece of pipe with a piece of tire chain on the end of it,” he said.
“I was a little dog-shy for a while, but it didn’t take me that long to get over it.”
