Biting dogs become real danger to many Americans

 LOS ANGELES, May 20(Xinhua)-- Peter, a Chinese American who works for the post office in Rosemead, California, said he has been attacked by dogs twice in the past 10 years while delivering mails.

He said as a mail carrier, he has to walk door to door to put mails into the mailboxes of the residents, and many times the owners were not at home but their dogs were too loyal to their duties and would see mail carriers like him as intruders(入侵者).

"It is dangerous to be a mail carrier. The enemy is not humans but animals like dogs who have been generally seen as human's best friends," Peter, who asked not to identify his full name, told Xinhua.

Mail carriers in the United States feel the real danger of being attacked by dogs while delivering mails door by door.

Statistics released by the U.S. Post Office showed that 5,669 postal¹ employees were attacked by dogs in 2010 in the United States. That's an average of 11 dog attacks every delivery day, and that figure does not include the number of threatening incidents that did not result in injury.

Los Angeles is the third most dangerous city in the U.S. when it comes to being a mail carrier with 44 mail carriers being attacked by dogs in 2010, according to the U.S. Post Office.

San Diego in California and Columbus in Ohio tied for second place, each logging 45 dog attacks. Houston in Texas is the most dangerous city in the U.S. for mail carriers with 62 attacks in 2010.

On May 25, 2010, Eddie Lin, a 33-year old Chinese American postal carrier in San Diego, was attacked by a dog while delivering mail, his head hit on the ground and died 10 days later. His death angered his family and the whole community.

The daughter of the dog's owner, who identified herself as Eva, said the incident has devastated² her father.

"We feel really bad," Eva told the local press in an interview. "It's just killing³ my Dad," she added.

On Sept. 30, 2010, a German Shepard and a Pitbull mix attacked Hu Ruiz, a 10-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service. He luckily recovered from puncture⁴ wounds on his arms after the two dogs attacked him as he made deliveries along Camden Avenue in San Jose, California.

It is not the problem for the mail carriers only. Dogs attack other people too. Statistics showed that there are more than 4.7 million Americans bitten by dogs nationwide annually⁵.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

2 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 puncture   

n.刺孔，穿孔；v.刺穿，刺破

参考例句：

• Failure did not puncture my confidence.失败并没有挫伤我的信心。
• My bicycle had a puncture and needed patching up.我的自行车胎扎了个洞，需要修补。

5 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。