Australia Post is urging dog owners to help keep posties safe with the postal service reporting more than 1170 dog incidents so far this financial year, about 400 more than the same time last year.

Angus Besci, Australia Post Head of Operations in WA, joined Liam Bartlett to raise awareness of the issue with WA being the worst culprit for these types of attacks.

“In the last 10 months we have nearly 250 incidents in Perth and believe it or not but we had 20 of those that required hospitalisation where we had significant injuries to posties that required plastic surgery,” he said.

“From our posties being chased down the road or even most commonly now our incidents are occurring when we knock on the door.

“Unfortunately we find a lot of the times the dogs are not even held or restrained so these dogs are roaming up and down the street … we tend to tell our staff not to deliver in those streets because we don’t know what the dog will do.

“It is about broadening the understanding of the community and dog owners that the best dog … sometimes they do misbehave and sometimes might go above or beyond in protecting their family.”

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