Mailman and neighbors ward off dog attack in Blaine

U.S. Postal Service driver Dave Hamilton, 55, helped save a Blaine woman from a dog attack at 4th and Cherry streets while on his delivery route February 22.

Hamilton, a rural carrier for USPS who usually doesn’t work Saturdays, was helping as needed when he came across a commotion on 4th Street.

“I finished the route, and I was coming back to the post office,” Hamilton said. “When I got up to the scene, I realized a large breed dog was attacking a woman and the dog she was walking on a leash.”

Stopping his car and rushing out, Hamilton went to aid the woman who had injured her arm after falling during the attack.

“She was an elderly woman, and she didn’t have the strength against this enormous dog,” Hamilton said. “It was like a small bear.”

The aggressive dog, which was accompanied by a non-aggressive dog, had grabbed the smaller dog the woman was walking by the throat. Hamilton threw an empty mail tub at the attacking dog, causing it to release the smaller dog.

Hamilton then used an ice scraper to ward off the dog when it attacked a second time.

Fearing further attacks, Hamilton got the woman into the back of his USPS truck. When the dog returned for a third attack, neighbors and passersby came to Hamilton’s aid.

“It happened directly in front of my house,” Blaine resident Tamara Cantu said. “I watched my partner jump on the big dog and put it in a headlock, like he was wrestling it on the ground.”

With the combined efforts of Hamilton, Cantu’s boyfriend Derek, and three men from a landscaping company, the dogs were led away from the scene and later recovered by police, according to Hamilton and Cantu. Police assisted the woman after the attack.

The smaller dog that was attacked ultimately died from its injuries, Cantu said.

“It just sucks,” Cantu said. “The dogs are going to pay the price, a woman is traumatized, the mailman is traumatized, a dog lost his life, his owners lost their fur baby, all because somebody wasn’t a very good dog owner.”

Despite being bitten four times by dogs himself throughout his career, Hamilton said this incident was one of the most shocking things he’s dealt with in over 18 years working for the USPS in Blaine.

“Dave is an amazing man and a great value to our company,” Hamilton’s supervisor Kenny Burger said.

Hamilton found a silver lining in the tragic event.

“Here in Blaine, when a neighbor needs help, you know there’s people that are going to rush to their side,” Hamilton said. “This was a team effort between the post office and the other people in the neighborhood.”