Beware of mailman

Dear Editor:I just wanted to share my story. Earlier in the week I had an unfortunate incident with a Downey postal worker. My 11-year-old daughter had some friends over and they didn't shut the front door all the way and unfortunately our two 10-lb. dogs got out and were pepper sprayed by the mailman. Now, while I personally cannot understand how a grown man can be that scared of a dog that small (and, yes, I work with animals), I knew it was our fault our dogs were out. I approached the mailman and asked him what he sprayed my dogs with so I would know how to help them (and my 11-year-old who got it in her eyes trying to pick up the dog). This is where it gets interesting. The mail"man" told me he had been spraying dogs all week and, here's the kicker, and I quote, "slamming dogs' heads and necks between the open door and the door jam." He said he has been putting his shoulder into it and slamming it as hard as he could. But it was the way he was saying it - he was proud of it. It was almost like he liked it. He told me he wished he would have been closer to my door and he would have done it to my dog. And he didn't even have the backbone to admit that he had said it to his supervisor who he called out. I, on the other hand, freely admitted to what I said, but maybe I was just raised better. Downey has great postal workers and this is not an attack against them. In 32 years of living here I have never had a problem. I just want the people of Downey to be careful because there are people out there who will abuse their authority knowing that you can't do or say anything to them because they are government workers. And if anyone has a dog who suffered unexplained injuries to the head or neck recently, I would go to the post office and ask if your mailman has a lot of "dog letters" on his route. You might be surprised who is coming onto your property. Andrew Bram Downey

********** Published: January 10, 2013 - Volume 11 - Issue 39