Chicago ranks No. 4 for most dog attacks on mail carriers

Mail carriers, you’d better keep an eye out for dogs.

According to U.S. Postal Service figures, Chicago ranked fourth nationwide last year in the number of dog attacks on postal workers, with 45.

Only Los Angeles, Houston and San Diego had more, with L.A. atop the list with 74 attacks, according to the data.

Nationwide, 5,767 postal workers were attacked by dogs last year.

Chicago historically has been a tough town for postal workers when it comes to dogs, said Mark Reynolds, spokesman for the Postal Service in Chicago.

“Unfortunately, we tend to be in the upper categories of this ranking year after year,” Reynolds said. “There are a lot of dogs, there are a lot of people who for whatever reason let their dogs run free. It’s a dog-ownership problem.”

If a mail carrier is attacked by a dog while delivering to a home, the Postal Service does have some recourse. It can cut off mail service to that address until the dog is “no longer a problem,” Reynolds said.