Poodle punting; Canada Post punishes a Winnipeg postie for following the manual and booting a dog.(Brief Article)

Dogs have attacked 48-year-old Paul Schellenberg of Winnipeg nearly a dozen times in his 24 years as a postman. His pants have been shredded and he has required tetanus shots for multiple bites and lacerations. Last November, he narrowly avoided being bitten yet again, this time by a snarling miniature poodle that hurled itself at him with teeth bared. Mr. Schellenberg "reflexively" put his boot to the little beast, and sent it off yelping. That should have been the end of it. But the dog's owner filed a complaint, and, Canada Post reacted by suspending Mr. Schellenberg without pay.

The altercation happened one morning in mid-November, when Mr. Schellenberg was partway through his 385-house route in the middle-class Winnipeg district of North Kildonan. His next stop was a two-bedroom, limestone-faced bungalow on Edison Avenue. As he strode into the yard he paid little heed to the small, beige poodle-type dog sitting on the driveway "minding its own business," as he puts it. A car was parked in the driveway, with a still-unidentified man sitting in it.

The postman put the mail in the box, turned and was about to leave when he was inexplicably charged by the dog. "It had his teeth bared, and it came at me snarling and growling," says Mr. Schellenberg. Previous unprovoked dog attacks have led him to be wary, he says, so "I didn't give it a chance to bite me. I kicked out at it reflexively to get rid of it." The man in the car did nothing.

Mr. Schellenberg apparently did exactly what Canada Post's policy manual instructs carriers to do when confronted with an aggressive dog. In the general delivery information manual that is part of letter-carrier training, a section entitled "Delivery Hazards" states: "Protect yourself, using [the mail] satchel, dog stopper [a spray repellant], or any means justified at the time." Last year, dogs triggered 327 incidents nationwide that were serious enough to require carriers to take sick time or medical leave.

Mr. Schellenberg argues he acted appropriately in this case. Though he stands six feet six inches tall and weighs 240 pounds, he notes that "even little dogs bite hard." Uninjured, he completed his route. Days later the owner, whose name has not been released, laid a complaint, claiming Mr. Schellenberg caused a hairline fracture of the poodle's jaw and a small lesion to its lip that bled slightly.

Canada Post's reaction was to suspend Mr. Schellenberg for 10 days. After he argued he had acted in self-defence, the suspension was cut in half. As far as he is concerned, however, any suspension is unjust because the dog owner is the one at fault. "If his dog wasn't out and loose, I couldn't have kicked it," he maintains.

Mr. Schellenberg appears to have the law on his side. Manitoba's Animal Liability Act states that owners must keep their dogs leashed or within a fenced area at all times. In addition, according to Rand Parker of the city's animal services branch, if a dog attacks someone on the owner's property, the owner is liable.

Canada Post officials have declined to comment on the heavily publicized case, ostensibly for privacy reasons, and also demanded that Mr. Schellenberg not speak to the news media. That, however, did not halt a nationwide flood of interest. CNN, Reuters and the CBC all requested interviews with the now notorious "pooch kicker," as one newspaper headline dubbed him. A Winnipeg daily had great fun with the incident, illustrating its story with a caricature of an oversized Mr. Schellenberg punting a tiny poodle like a football.

Other mail carriers and many ordinary Winnipegers saw it differently, however, and lined up behind Mr. Schellenberg, according to his union's grievance officer, Bob Tyre. Some posties even discussed staging a one-day walkout to protest the punishment. The groundswell of support for the mailman, says Mr. Tyre, is something Canada Post had not reckoned on. He says the company is reconsidering even the shorter suspension.

What irks Mr. Schellenberg most, however, is that even though he was following the training manual, he has been warned that another such incident could get him fired. "The thing is, if I had really wanted to kick the dog hard, they would have had to scrape him off my shoe," he says. "To my knowledge, I am the first letter carrier in Canada to be suspended for defending myself against a dog attack. And I've been taken off that route because the incident supposedly tarnished the image of Canada Post."

Poodle punting; Canada Post punishes a Winnipeg postie for following the manual and booting a dog.(Brief Article)

Dogs have attacked 48-year-old Paul Schellenberg of Winnipeg nearly a dozen times in his 24 years as a postman. His pants have been shredded and he has required tetanus shots for multiple bites and lacerations. Last November, he narrowly avoided being bitten yet again, this time by a snarling miniature poodle that hurled itself at him with teeth bared. Mr. Schellenberg "reflexively" put his boot to the little beast, and sent it off yelping. That should have been the end of it. But the dog's owner filed a complaint, and, Canada Post reacted by suspending Mr. Schellenberg without pay.

The altercation happened one morning in mid-November, when Mr. Schellenberg was partway through his 385-house route in the middle-class Winnipeg district of North Kildonan. His next stop was a two-bedroom, limestone-faced bungalow on Edison Avenue. As he strode into the yard he paid little heed to the small, beige poodle-type dog sitting on the driveway "minding its own business," as he puts it. A car was parked in the driveway, with a still-unidentified man sitting in it.

The postman put the mail in the box, turned and was about to leave when he was inexplicably charged by the dog. "It had his teeth bared, and it came at me snarling and growling," says Mr. Schellenberg. Previous unprovoked dog attacks have led him to be wary, he says, so "I didn't give it a chance to bite me. I kicked out at it reflexively to get rid of it." The man in the car did nothing.

Mr. Schellenberg apparently did exactly what Canada Post's policy manual instructs carriers to do when confronted with an aggressive dog. In the general delivery information manual that is part of letter-carrier training, a section entitled "Delivery Hazards" states: "Protect yourself, using [the mail] satchel, dog stopper [a spray repellant], or any means justified at the time." Last year, dogs triggered 327 incidents nationwide that were serious enough to require carriers to take sick time or medical leave.

Mr. Schellenberg argues he acted appropriately in this case. Though he stands six feet six inches tall and weighs 240 pounds, he notes that "even little dogs bite hard." Uninjured, he completed his route. Days later the owner, whose name has not been released, laid a complaint, claiming Mr. Schellenberg caused a hairline fracture of the poodle's jaw and a small lesion to its lip that bled slightly.

Canada Post's reaction was to suspend Mr. Schellenberg for 10 days. After he argued he had acted in self-defence, the suspension was cut in half. As far as he is concerned, however, any suspension is unjust because the dog owner is the one at fault. "If his dog wasn't out and loose, I couldn't have kicked it," he maintains.

Mr. Schellenberg appears to have the law on his side. Manitoba's Animal Liability Act states that owners must keep their dogs leashed or within a fenced area at all times. In addition, according to Rand Parker of the city's animal services branch, if a dog attacks someone on the owner's property, the owner is liable.

Canada Post officials have declined to comment on the heavily publicized case, ostensibly for privacy reasons, and also demanded that Mr. Schellenberg not speak to the news media. That, however, did not halt a nationwide flood of interest. CNN, Reuters and the CBC all requested interviews with the now notorious "pooch kicker," as one newspaper headline dubbed him. A Winnipeg daily had great fun with the incident, illustrating its story with a caricature of an oversized Mr. Schellenberg punting a tiny poodle like a football.

Other mail carriers and many ordinary Winnipegers saw it differently, however, and lined up behind Mr. Schellenberg, according to his union's grievance officer, Bob Tyre. Some posties even discussed staging a one-day walkout to protest the punishment. The groundswell of support for the mailman, says Mr. Tyre, is something Canada Post had not reckoned on. He says the company is reconsidering even the shorter suspension.

What irks Mr. Schellenberg most, however, is that even though he was following the training manual, he has been warned that another such incident could get him fired. "The thing is, if I had really wanted to kick the dog hard, they would have had to scrape him off my shoe," he says. "To my knowledge, I am the first letter carrier in Canada to be suspended for defending myself against a dog attack. And I've been taken off that route because the incident supposedly tarnished the image of Canada Post."