Mail carriers beware

Houston has been showing up on all kinds of lists lately: it's the hardest city to navigate, the worst at picking up pet poop, the fifth most toilet-clogged city — and now, when it comes to mail carriers, we're the dog-bite capital of the country for the fifth year.

The distinction is based on dog attacks reported by mail carriers across the country. In fiscal year 2005, the most recent period for which statistics are available, the Houston District (which stretches east to Beaumont and Port Arthur) recorded 108 bite incidents, 73 of them inside the Houston city limits. It looks like FY '06 won't be any better: Between Oct. 1, 2005, and April 2006, there were 31 bites in Houston. The city also topped the dog-bite list from 1997 to 2000.

The postal station with the most bites was the T.W. House Station, which serves ZIP codes 77007 and 77008 northwest of downtown; the Eastwood and Park Place stations had the second-highest number of reported bites. One Park Place carrier, Phyllis Buck, was attacked by three pit bulls last week and needed 80 stitches on her body and 10 staples in her head. "I am altered for the rest of my life, but [dog owners] can get more pit bulls and it can happen to someone else," she told the Chronicle.

City Council is expected to consider a tougher policy for dealing with dangerous dogs, and Houston Postmaster Gwen Green said there are things the post office can do as well, including requiring curbside mailboxes or denying delivery to problem areas. Green said the post office is also working with the city's Bureau of Animal Control on a program to notify the city about stray dogs. "It is serious," Green said. "We just want to come and deliver the mail."