A 70-pound canine’s teeth pierced and tore into United States postal worker Tara Snyder’s right hand as she was delivering mail in Nesquehoning.

She needed 16 stitches and multiple physical therapy sessions, and was only recently cleared to return to work.

The April 15 attack, she said, happened at a house where she always delivers mail.

“I’ve heard them barking, but I never saw them outside before,” Snyder said of the dogs.

Snyder, of Summit Hill, is among the thousands of USPS employees who are bitten by dogs each year.

In hopes of keeping its letter carriers safe, the USPS kicked off its National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign this morning. It will be observed Sunday through June 9, with the theme of “Don’t let your dog bite the hand that serves you.”

Snyder recalled that nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the minutes leading up to the attack.

“It was just a normal day,” she said.

She walked her route, dropping off letters and packages, and came to a home she’s visited many times.

“I got to the house, and I rattled the gate like I normally do whenever there’s a gate to make sure that there are no animals inside (the yard),” Snyder explained.

There weren’t.

“I opened the gate. I went up on the porch. I put mail in the box,” she said.

But as she turned to knock on the door to obtain a signature for a registered letter, the unexpected happened.

“The dogs came out from the door on the opposite side of the porch. They pushed the screen door open and came after me,” Snyder said.

The first dog lunged.

“I took my mail satchel to try to shield myself with it,” she explained.

It was too late.

“As I turned, it grabbed the satchel - and my hand - at the same time,” Snyder said.

The USPS noted that incidents involving dog attacks on postal service employees around the country rose to more than 5,800 in 2023.

Pennsylvania ranks third, and logged 334 last year.

“Letter carriers are exposed to potential hazards every day, none more prevalent than a canine encounter. All it takes is one interaction for a letter carrier to possibly suffer an injury,” said Leeann Theriault, USPS manager of Employee Safety and Health Awareness. “The U.S. Postal Service consistently encourages responsible pet ownership. The national dog bite campaign is an effort to promote dog bite awareness to keep our customers, their dogs, and letter carriers safe while delivering the mail.”

Snyder, who has been working for the post office for 7 years, said it was her first dog attack.

The homeowner came outside immediately, corralled the canines and called 911.

“Any dog can have a bad day and come after you,” Snyder said. “It could be nice 364 days a year and then that one day, it has an off day.”

Letter carriers know all dogs can bite, even those perceived as nonaggressive.

“Usually we know where the dogs are and which houses to avoid,” Snyder said. “We have warning stickers on their mailboxes if there is a dog on the property.”

The USPS notes that dogs are generally protective of their turf and dog owners have an important responsibility to control them to ensure safe mail delivery.

It advised owners to keep their dogs inside the house or behind a fence; away from the door or in another room; or on a leash when a letter carrier is expected.

Pet owners also should remind children not to take mail directly from a letter carrier as the dog may view the carrier as a threat to the child.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, the average cost per insurance claim for a dog bite is $64,555. When a postal employee suffers an injury, the owner could be responsible for medical bills, lost wages, uniform replacement costs, and pain and suffering for the employee.

If a dog attacks, carriers are trained to stand their ground and protect their body by placing something between them and the dog - such as a mail satchel, as Snyder did - and to use dog repellent, if necessary.

The USPS said that when a carrier feels unsafe, mail service will be stopped and recipients will have to retrieve their mail from the post office.