Why a Paw Print Sticker Is Coming to Washington State Mail Boxes

If you start seeing paw print stickers on your mailbox, don't remove them, they serve a great purpose to keep your local mail carrier safe.

There's a USPS program that's making its way across the states and might soon be in Washington State. It might surprise you to learn that over 5,000 postal mail carriers, a year get bitten by a dog while delivering mail.

The Paws Program kicked off in 2020 and has steadily made its way across the country in the hope to diminish dog bites to mail carriers. The program is already in states like North Dakota and Montana.

If you do see the stickers, each of them has a particular purpose hence the reason you don't want to remove the stickers.

An orange sticker tells carriers that there is a dog at this home and the yellow cautions the carrier that there is a dog at the next house.

The program currently isn't in Washington State but it might be someday. California leads the nation with the most dog bites with Texas and New York coming in second and third.

The stickers are hopefully a deterrent and a warning for mail carriers to be on their guard. The postal service acknowledges that most bites come from dogs that previously had no behavior issues.

You can read more about the Paws program here.