DANVILLE, Va. — A Virginia neighborhood had its mail service disrupted for about three weeks after a Yorkshire terrier bit a postal carrier.

The Danville Register and Bee reports that the neighborhood is one of two in Danville to have mail service disrupted recently because of dog bites. The second neighborhood had service suspended because carriers were being chased by a pit bull.

A Postal Service spokesman said action was necessary to prevent carriers from being attacked; mail carriers in Virginia were bitten by dogs 153 times in 2018 and 143 times in 2017.

Home delivery in the neighborhood with the Yorkie resumed when the dog’s owner installed a curbside mailbox and put up a fence.

Residents said they received no notice of the suspension and questioned why the whole neighborhood was affected.