Fear of pit bulls halts mail delivery in Lawrence

LAWRENCE, Mass. -- Rain, sleet nor snow may not stop the postal service, but in Lawrence, Mass. pit bulls halted mail delivery for one neighborhood.

Two weeks ago, the mail carrier assigned to deliver mail to residents on Bowdoin Street didn’t feel safe on the route because he was afraid of one owner’s two pit bulls.

About 40 affected residents were forced to pick up their mail from the post office.

“I had to walk down to the post office myself because we don’t have a vehicle…It takes me about a half hour to get there and about a half hour to wait in line and get our mail,” said Jim Knowlton Jr.

Residents of the street said they were not notified of the change. They found out from a resident who talked to a city council member.

“The post office can’t actually send out notifications to the residents because they would have to do that through the mail, which they weren’t delivering,” resident Jennifer Cooper said.

Police got involved after residents complained the trip to the post office was inconvenient.

“For me personally just with the two children…to have to go up to the post office –that’s a very busy post office, so on average you have to wait 20 or 30 minutes. So it’s a big inconvenience if you have to do that every single day,” Cooper said.

Police said they now have animal control officers and police officers escorting the mail carrier.

“If it takes us being there being there while the letter carrier delivers his mail, we’re going to do that in the short-term but obviously that’s not the long-term solution. If there’s a problem, we’ll address the issue but people need to get their mail,” said Chief John Romero of the Lawrence Police Department.

Police said they had one report of the dog’s being out of the home, and that was last August. The letter carrier apparently had to jump on a car to get away from the dogs. Since then, police said they have not received any complaints, and they have never seen the dogs on the road.

They said the dogs were licensed, and had their vaccinations.

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