Columnist Susan Snyder: Post this: Beware of bite threat

Friday, May 17, 2002 | 2:51 a.m.

Scorpions, snakes, Africanized bees.

What's to bite us next?

Dogs, according to the U.S. Postal Service.

Big, lumbering slobbery ones. Yappy little ankle-biters. Dogs have been going postal over letter carriers for eons. But officials want to elevate awareness of this gnawing problem during National Dog Bite Prevention Week, which starts today.

"I think it's gotten worse," said Jerry Penn, local branch president for the National Association of Letter Carriers. "More and more people are getting dogs these days. It's just a continuous problem with the influx of dogs for protection."

Penn says at one time or another most carriers have a bone to pick about dogs.

"Panic really sets in when you see dogs coming at you," he said. "All of a sudden, there he is and he's got a mouthful of meat."

Now put down the telephone and cancel the vitriolic e-mail. Obviously, we're only talking about problem canines. Many, if not most, dogs are perfectly benign. But it takes only one.

"My wife was bitten," Penn said. "They opened the front door, and the dog came charging out. She wasn't hurt too badly."

Not "too badly" as compared to what -- 72 stitches or something?

Last year 55 Las Vegas Valley letter carriers were bitten by dogs, federal figures show. That's the 16th-highest recorded number out of the 85 metropolitan postal districts ranked.

California's Van Nuys district was first with 85 bites last year. In Alaska, there were four.

Nationally, we own about 53 million dogs -- more pooches per person than any other country, according to a dog bite report the American Veterinary Association prepared for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 4.5 million people are nipped annually, and about 334,000 of them seek emergency room care. About half the victims are younger than 12, and another 10 percent are 70 or older. Postal carriers and people who read natural gas and water meters also are at high risk.

"We never get bit by the dogs we see. We get bit by the ones we don't see," Penn said. "And it becomes a lot worse in the summer."

Letter carriers protect themselves with a small can of pepper spray, their mail bags and their wits. Penn once used the latter two when a pair of dogs chased him across a street.

"I put up my bag for protection and I had a book in my hand. So I threw the book at them," he recalled. "But we had one carrier a few years back who was bitten so badly he almost died."

Owners can be a big part of the problem or the solution. Few think their dogs will attack or effectively keep dogs at bay when the doorbell rings. If there's a screen or outer door Penn says most carriers automatically place one foot against it.

In Van Nuys letter carriers and their families will lead a parade today through that city's Balboa Park. Nothing is planned for the Las Vegas Valley.

"It's a serious problem. We probably should do more education and do something for bite prevention week," Penn said. "But our food drive just ended, and we've been pretty focused on that."

So it's up to dog owners to remember and make sure their furry, four-footed friends don't deliver more than a wag and a woof when the postman rings.