Monday, December 22, 2014

Royal Mail suspends Christmas deliveries on street after dog attack leaves postie needing surgery

UNITED KINGDOM -- These gruesome pictures show the aftermath of a vicious dog attack which left a postman needing plastic surgery and residents of a Yorkshire town without their Christmas deliveries.

Postie Jason Lee, 42, was left with a four inch gaping wound on his right arm and requiring stitches in his buttock after the Bull Mastiff dog pinned him to the ground and started "tearing chunks" out of him while he carried out his daily round.


 
After undergoing plastic surgery to repair his arm injuries, Jason had to take nine months off work to recover - and is fuming that he cannot press charges because the attack happened on private property.

Now, Royal Mail have suspended deliveries to houses because of fears the savage dog is on the prowl again.

This leaves residents in Copley Avenue, Meltham, West Yorkshire, forced to trek to their local Post Office almost a mile away - until Royal Mail are assured the dog is not a threat.

Angry Jason, of Huddersfield, who's been a postie for 20 years, said: "I knew about this dog and I'd been wary of it before because it looked dangerous and acted aggressively. I remember looking through into the living room where the dog's owner was and he was just lying on his sofa, relaxing.


"Then, as soon as I approached the door I saw this gigantic dog come around the corner and it just came flying towards my head. It wrestled with me and pinned me down on the floor and it was so big and strong that I couldn't move at all while it was tearing chunks out of me.

"I then felt the teeth sink into my buttock and I started shouting for help. It was the most painful thing that's ever happened to me.

"The owner then came out and startled the dog so I managed to run to safety. It all happened so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to think about what was happening. I just thought that this was the end and I wasn't going to survive."


After the attack, on July 9 last year, postal services were suspended - but now the same dog has been spotted out again. So Royal Mail have refused to deliver again until they have been assured the dog will be kept securely at home.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "We have temporarily suspended deliveries to a number of addresses in Meltham, due to the threat of a dangerous dog being kept at a property being loose on the road.


"This dog has previously attacked a postman, leaving him with serious injuries, and is not currently being kept securely at the address.

"We have asked the dog owner to take the necessary steps to ensure the dog is kept securely within grounds of the property and is not able to roam free. We want to restore services to customers as soon as possible and will do so when as soon as this is addressed."

Mr Lee, who lives with his partner 48-year-old Elaine Harvey, now covers a different route and wants the owner to be prosecuted and the dog to be destroyed.

He added: "It's absolutely shocking that I can't press charges after the amount of damage that this dog has done to me. The law needs to be changed because there is nothing to stop this happening to somebody else and it may well do.

"I'm a dog-lover myself, but this owner is totally irresponsible and I can't believe that the animal is still out there."

(Mirror UK - Dec 20, 2014)

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