A dog in Hialeah, Florida, was sprayed with mace by a postal mail carrier reported Monday’s ABC Local 10 News. The dog, a six-year-old Belgian Malinois named “Barney,” was left in agonizing pain after the carrier sprayed the deterrent in his face on Saturday.
Barney’s owner, Michael Rhoades, recounted the situation to the local news source:
“I come out and I say, ‘Hey, did you just mace by dog?’ because he was writhing in pain on the ground, and she’s like, ‘Yes, I did.'”
Though Barney suffered no long term injury from the painful spray, his owner questions why it had to happen at all. Barney is kept behind a fence, and there is mesh around the mail receptacle to prevent dogs from harming anyone who reaches in to deliver the mail.
Though Rhoades does not want to see the mail carrier disciplined, he does hope that if she feels uncomfortable delivering items in the future, she will choose to leave the mail at a post office for pick up, rather than spraying mace on his dog’s face.
(Photo screenshot via News 10)
This is a stupid response on the part of the dog owner. He doesn’t want the carrier disciplined for assaulting his dog? Why, so she can do it again to somebody else’s dog? It appears the dog owner had done everything right with the dog, keeping it in a safe enclosure so it couldn’t harm anyone and the poor dog is still punished for being a dog. If you’re not going to stick up for your animal you don’t need to have an animal.
I fail to see a reason why this dog was maced. Barney sounded like he was contained and not a problem, the mail carrier just wanted to spray him! I had this happen to my dog by a meter reader. I was in the house and the dogs were playing outside and I heard an ear piercing yelp and looked out to see Bear rolling on the ground rubbing his face. The funny thing is, Bear was probably the friendliest dog I ever owned. I ran out the door in time to see the truck of the meter reader pulling out of the driveway. Don’t think the utility didn’t get a piece of my mind. I was home, if the dog was a problem, knock on the door. Worst thing about it was Bear never liked that meter reader again, but luckily didn’t hold it against any of the other’s that came around.