Mail service interrupted for more than a year due to pit bull

CONCORD, N.H., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Residents of a New Hampshire neighborhood said they have not had mail delivered to their homes for more than a year due to an unruly pit bull.

The U.S. Postal Service said delivery service to Cornell Street in Concord was suspended more than a year ago when a pit bull named Levi, belonging to David Dale and his family, rushed the mail carrier "on three different occasions," ABC News reported Wednesday.

"A pit bull rushing someone, as most people will recognize, is a cause for serious concern," said Tom Rizzo, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service Northern New England District.

"It's not uncommon for dog owners to minimize the danger or the risk to others," Rizzo said. "Sometimes the dog owner will take steps to restrain the animal so it's no longer a threat."

However, neighbors said the Dale family has been unable to solve the problem because Levi is strong enough to escape his leash and the family's yard does not have a fence.

Three neighbors said they have erected mail boxes at the end of the street to ensure their mail is delivered, but some, including Nancee Donovan, have to make trips across town to pick up mail.

"It's not our responsibility to spend extra money to buy a post office box, or put up a mailbox at the end of the street," Donovan said. "We just don't think, as taxpaying citizens, that we should have to buy a mailbox to put on another street when everything was fine until this dog came."

David Dale told WMUR-TV, Manchester, he is in the process of training Levi not to get overly excited.