One Mid-South neighborhood is calling out the U.S. Postal Service for what it calls “inappropriate behavior.” Home surveillance video shows a delivery driver spraying a dog with pepper spray from inside a vehicle.
It happened Saturday around 9:30 a.m. in the Berclair neighborhood on Wingfield Road off Macon Road.
Local 24’s Dave Detling spoke to the dog’s owner and a neighbor who witnessed the incident.
Duane Cleveland loves his dogs, especially his 4-and-half-year-old mutt Wes.
“His name is short for Westover. That’s the street I found him on when he was a puppy,” said Cleveland. “I’ve had him going on five years now. He’s a great dog. Everybody who knows him, knows he’s a great dog.”
“He’s like a big baby,” said Shannon Chestnut. “He’s really sweet.”
Both Cleveland and Chestnut tell Local 24 they can’t understand the actions of a U.S. Postal Service delivery driver.
Home surveillance video from Cleveland’s home shows the woman inside the delivery truck extend her arm through a window and pepper spray Wes.
“She looked on one side to see where he was. Then she looked on the left side,” said Cleveland. “She kind of backed the truck up a little bit and next thing you know, here she comes with mace. That’s not right.”
The video shows the USPS employee staying inside the vehicle.
His owner and neighbor admit Wes was in the front yard unaccompanied when the driver pulled in. They maintain Wes never barked or showed any aggressive behavior. The video seems to support their claims. Prior to the incident you can see Wes standing in the driveway. As the truck pulls in, he walks around it.
“He’s curious,” said Cleveland.
“I saw her pull up in front of the house,” recalled Chestnut. “The dog was by the front of the house, by the steps. Then she pulled into the driveway and then she sat there. The dog kind of went on both sides of the van, not barking, not growling. Not jumping on the van, not anything. She reached her hand through the window and pepper sprayed him.”
The video, which has since been uploaded to social media, shows the scene described. From another vantage point video cameras show the dog looking stunned as he walks away.
“I saw him pawing at his face. He wasn’t even doing anything,” said Chestnut. “There was no point. If she had been on foot that would have been different. I can’t believe she did that.”
Cleveland calls the entire incident inappropriate.
“That was just an act of bad behavior,” he said. “It was animal cruelty and people need to think twice.”
Local 24 reached out to the USPS and shared the video of the incident.
USPS responded with this statement:
“Thank you for sharing this video with us. We are currently reviewing it to gather additional details about this incident. The actions demonstrated in the video are unacceptable and do not reflect the efforts of the thousands of professional, dedicated carriers in our workforce.
The Postal Service strongly encourages dog owners to restrain their dogs to allow the carriers to deliver the mail safely, however, carriers are instructed not to use dog repellent indiscriminately.
Loose dogs are a serious problem for letter carriers. They are the third most frequent victims of dog attacks; children and the elderly rank first and second, respectively. When a loose dog is observed, a carrier should carefully consider withholding delivery. A letter carrier should never assume a dog won’t bite.”
