Mailman Attacked by Dog (Suprise)

Pit bull attacks mail carrier

By CHRISTINE ROBINSON
and JOSH WOLFSON
Star-Tribune staff writers Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A large pit bull seriously injured a mail carrier at noon Tuesday in Casper, police said.

The postal worker, who was bitten on the face and arms, was attacked on the 500 block of East 13th Street, said police and post office officials.

After someone called 911, an officer who was a block away responded and stopped the attack with the help of a Taser, said Casper police Sgt. Doug Beran.

The dog turned on the officer as soon as he got out of the car, Beran said.

The carrier, a man who has worked with the Casper Post Office for 15 years, was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and was still in the hospital as of 4 p.m. Tuesday, and was receiving rabies shots because it is still unknown if the dog has rabies, said Cory Stibley, supervisor for Casper Post Office.

"He was bit multiple times on his face and nose, right and left forearm and right and left ankle and had abrasions because the dog knocked him down twice," Stibley said.

Stibley did not name the postal worker injured in the attack.

The dog was a white American pit bull that Stibley estimated weighed between 70 and 90 pounds.

Rick Sulzen, the director of Metro Animal Control, said the owners of the dog signed the animal over to Metro. The dog was then euthanized and sent to be tested for rabies.

The dog was not current on its rabies vaccinations. It bit the postman on the face, which Sulzen said accelerates the possible transmission of rabies, a disease that affects the brain.

Sulzen said he should know Wednesday or Thursday morning if the dog tested positive for rabies.

This is the third attack on a Casper postal worker in the past two weeks, said Stibley. Two other attacks left workers with wounds on their forearms.

"They carry Mace but when the attack happens that sudden the postman doesn't have time to use it," Stibley said.

Sulzen said that pit bulls, as a breed, are no more or less likely to attack humans than other breeds of dogs.

"I can't label a breed," he said. Statistically, he said, more bites in Wyoming are caused by border collies and Queensland heelers.

"Any dog has the potential to bite. It all boils down to how the owner raises them," Sulzen said. "I have an Australian shepherd that could be raised to be a nasty vicious dog. And I have seen pit bulls that are the most loving and will lick you to death before they bite you. But I have also seen the opposite."

The owners were given citations for no rabies vaccine, no dog license, dog at large and having a vicious animal, Sulzen said. Those offenses carry up to a $750 fine or six months in jail.