REDUCING THE WALK RISKS

[fishtank]

A little question for brothermagrew.
Now that the plan is to "take the weight of the shoulder" will the advice on defending yourself from a dog attack be ammended.
After all you can hardly protect your most sensitive areas with a handfull of D2D.

[brothermagrew]

A little question for brothermagrew.
Now that the plan is to "take the weight of the shoulder" will the advice on defending yourself from a dog attack be ammended.
After all you can hardly protect your most sensitive areas with a handfull of D2D.

A very well thought and reasoned question indeed brother fishtank, and in one in which I honestly do not have the answer to which you are aspiring for, as I have no knowledge or been made party to what the contents of the new or reviewed Royal Mail policy on dealing with dangerous dogs is. All I do know is that the new Royal Mail Dangerous Dogs Policy review. The new Policy is in the finalisation stages and will be introduced in the summer.

As to the protection of the sensitive areas, what I do know is that out of the 14,000 postmen or woman who suffered injuries and falling victim to dog attacks during their rounds over the past three years 128 suffered bites to their private parts. Other stats 350 were bitten on the backside, 4,667 leg, knee and shin bites, 1.884 finger injuries and 1,863 bites to thighs. Figures have shown a 10% increase - rocketing from 4,487 in 2006-7 to 5,091 last year. On average 12 posties a day are falling victim to dog attacks whilst RM have also said 15,428 days were lost because of dog attacks and which cost the business millions of pounds.

One would therefore naturally presume that suitable ammended advice will be given by RM to their reviewed policy but until such times as it is formally introduced we shall have to ponder and speculate as to it's contents. On a personal level I work under the old adage of if in doubt leave it out or in other words I understand that I am under no obligation to collect or deliver mail to an address where I feel threatened by a dog at large and that every attack or incident of menacing will be reported to management. After all it is Royal Mail policy.

And you can bet your bottom dollar that many incidents of dog menace or even dog attacks will have gone unreported by staff (failing to report for whatever reason!) thereby giving an untrue representation of the actual figures, as I recall the CWU conservatively estimate the problem to be about between 6,000 - 7,000 per year.

[OnAFlyer]

'Taking the weight off your shoulder' means carrying less in a pouch - you should still always carry a pouch with you. Surely it's common sense, the same as not going in a garden with a known dog when the front door is open, and not believing anyone who says 'the dog won't bite'

[brothermagrew]

Unfortunately for some brother OnAFlyer common sense does not come into the equation and others would say the preferred term is good sense.