It wasn’t the delivery Limara Yakemchuk expected.
The Victoria woman says her five-year-old Chihuahua-Dachshund mix, Branson, was pepper sprayed by a Canada Post carrier earlier this week.
Yakemchuk says she and Branson were in her front yard when the carrier came onto the proper for a routine delivery.
The admittedly “yappy” dog ran toward him and stopped roughly five feet away, but seconds later Branson was yelping and appeared disoriented.
“He was freaking out, so I picked him up and I was apologizing to the mail guy,” she said. “And then the mail guy was like, ‘You should wash your dog, there’s going to be pepper spray on him.’”
Unclear exactly what happened, Yakemchuk said she instinctually apologized to the letter carrier, who then put her mail down in the yard and left.
She’s upset because she thinks the man overreacted given the situation and didn’t give any indication that he was threatened at the time.
“Honestly, the way he was acting…his body language wasn’t as if he was threatened,” she said. “He was standing very neutral, just watching it happen.”
Branson was off-leash at the time, but Yakemchuk said the dog was in her sight and close enough that she would’ve been able to prevent any harm to her dog or letter carrier if he had just given it a few more seconds.
She also said she didn’t hear the mailman raise his voice at the animal once.
CTV Vancouver Island’s Travis Prasad caught up with the mailman on his daily route, asking him why he used pepper spray in the incident.
“Because the dog charged me with its teeth out,” he said. “I was threatened.”
The union representing the region’s postal workers said Canada Post employees are told to protect themselves against aggressive dogs with provided pepper spray.
“If the owner won’t hold the dog then you have to protect yourself from getting bitten,” said Janet Barney, president of the local Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
Canada Post echoed that sentiment, saying in a statement “In the right circumstance, any dog can bite – any size, any breed, especially when the dog perceives it is protecting family or home.”
Yakemchuk maintained her dog would never bite, and thinks anyone whose job puts them near dogs have a responsibility to learn their behaviour.
“Especially if you’re going to be a delivery person, you’re going to be dealing with people’s animals. You should know their body language,” she said.
She said she hopes the mail carrier involved is moved to a different route.
Canada Post said it will resolve the matter within the week.
