CLEVELAND, OH — Cleveland is one of the nation's leaders for dog attacks on U.S. Postal Service workers. While less dog attacks happened last year overall both in Cleveland and in the nation, the number of attacks remain staggeringly high, according to a new report from the agency.

The USPS, which released its findings on Thursday, said there were 6,244 workers attacked by canines across the country, including 49 in Cleveland. While the overall number may astonish some readers, there were actually 500 fewer attacks than the year before. It's also a decrease for Cleveland, which had 60 dog attacks on USPS workers in 2016.

Sadly, Cleveland is still in the top five of cities with the most dog attacks on USPS workers. But at least we aren't Houston.

Seventy-one Postal Service workers in Houston were attacked last year, and the city managed to leapfrog Los Angeles — which had 67 attacks — to earn the dubious title of worst city in America for dog attacks. St. Louis, Cleveland and San Diego rounded out the top five with 52, 49 and 46 workers attacked, respectively.

California had the most cities make the list with six, followed by Ohio and Texas, which each had four.

But the Postal Service is taking an optimistic view of the data. While still very high, the number fell by a not-insignificant amount.

"We're encouraged by the decrease in dog attacks," Postal Service Safety Director Linda DeCarlo said in a release. "The totals are still too high, but we're confident that with continuing education and dog bite prevention training, along with advancing technology, we can keep more people safe and keep attacks trending downward."



DeCarlo said the agency utilizes a safety feature that alerts mail carriers to dogs on their delivery routes. The application asks customers to indicate if they have dogs at their homes when they schedule package pickups. That information is then relayed to carriers on their delivery scanners, which blast alerts if an unleashed dog is reported. "The scanners that our carriers use to confirm a customer's delivery include a feature for them to indicate the presence of a dog at an individual address," said DeCarlo. "This information is particularly helpful for substitute carriers who fill in for regular carriers on their days off."