What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
My local post office is refusing to deliver mail to me and everyone in my apartment complex after an employee claimed my dog "attacked" him, which was really just her sniffing his leg and him freaking out and proceeding to throw homophobic slurs at me and flat out tell me he was going to lie so my mail would no longer be delivered. Is there anything that can be done about this? There will be no markings or anything on him if we were to take this to court as she did not do anything to him whatsoever other than sniff his leg.
As a factual matter, it appears that the post office is refusing the mail delivery because it fears that your dog might harm its employee. The Post Office may do that. The Postal handbook for city carriers, M-41, is adopted as part of the Post Office regulations. This handbook is written directed at the carriers, i.e. it tells the carriers how to do their jobs. Section 133.5 of that handbook states: “Do not antagonize or attempt to pet dogs. Use animal repellent on attacking animals.
Carriers are not required to deliver mail where dogs or other animals interfere. Report interference to manager. If service is withdrawn, use Forms 3982 or 1564-B to record special instructions.” (Bolding added.)
What I suggest you do as an initial matter is contact the postmaster for the post office that delivers to you and try to work out a resolution to this problem. I suggest when contact the postmaster that you be polite and focused on trying to find a solution rather than trying to place blame or accuse the carrier of anything. If you make a big issue out of the carrier being wrong you’ll make everyone there defensive and much less likely to help you. The carrier, rightly or not, has stated a concern about your dog. Focus on that and offer suggestions of what might be done to keep the dog away from the carrier so that he need not worry about a possible dog bite or other interference by the dog. Bear in mind, carriers have good reason to be concerned about dogs. In just one year, Fiscal Year 2014, over 5,700 carriers were bitten by dogs. So while you may consider your dog to be sweet, innocent, and not likely to bite anyone, others who don’t know your dog are going to be more wary, especially mail carriers because they hear of colleagues getting bitten all the time and your carrier himself might have been bitten by a dog in the past.
I would be especially careful of raising the “homophobic” allegation against the carrier. To the extent you are alleging the carrier may be discriminating against you because of your sexual orientation (whether actual or perceived), understand that federal statutes do not protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation and that state law protections do not apply to the federal government.
