DOG AWARENESS WEEK: POSTIES MAKE UP HUGE NUMBERS OF DOG ATTACKS, UNION WARNS

COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION
30/06/2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DOG AWARENESS WEEK: POSTIES MAKE UP HUGE NUMBERS OF DOG ATTACKS, UNION WARNS

Postal workers have sent a message to the public that dog attacks remain a major safety concern, as statistics show that a third of all dog attacks are on postal workers.

A recent research report shared to the Communication Workers Union – the union for Britain’s postal workers – which analysed civil claims in England and Wales from 2017 to 2024 showed that of the 842 reported dog bite incident claims, postal delivery workers accounted for 32.4% of all victims.

The most common context for bites from the report is being from when delivery workers enter the front of a property (22.4%).

This is on top of already existing statistics that 30,000 of postal workers have been attacked by dogs in the last decade – and approximately 1000 have had a finger or part of a finger bitten off through a letterbox.

The message was sent by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) – the union for Britain’s postal workers – at the start of Dog Awareness Week, which starts today (30^th June 2025).

In the past 12 months, police statistics have registered a significant spike in the number of dog attacks, with the Mirror reporting in April 2025 that 87 dog attacks happen every day.

This upward trend is only a growing risk to the safety and wellbeing of postal workers who serve the country’s 32 million addresses on a daily basis.

As a result, the CWU wants to see irresponsible dog owners who fail to control and secure their animals – and who allow dog attacks on postal workers – prosecuted and handed a sentence that fits the crime.

The CWU is currently working with many police forces, local authorities and council environmental health teams to tackle irresponsible dog ownership.

But the union also educates where possible and have developed new working partnerships with the Welsh Assembly, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Pet Education Partnership (PEP) to ensure that community education plays a key part in reducing dog attacks.

This includes ‘Paws for Thought’, an education webinar with the PEP that sees the CWU engaging with eight leading animal welfare charities.

ENDS

For press information, research and statistics requests, details on ‘Paws for Thought’ or comment requests, please contact CWU Press Officer Marcus Barnett at mbarnett@cwu.org.