Paige Orr, FOX23.com News Staff
TULSA, Okla. — Imagine checking your mailbox for more than a week, finding absolutely nothing, and having no one tell you why.
That is the reality for the residents living along the 1000 block of North Irvington Avenue after the United States Postal Service completely cut off their mail delivery due to roaming dogs.
For the elderly and disabled residents who live on this street and who rely on the mail for lifesaving checks and time-sensitive documents, the sudden silence from the post office has been devastating.
Residents were left entirely in the dark about the suspension until neighbor Zakk Durham decided to take matters into his own hands and went directly to the local post office to get answers.
The post office only began handing out warning notices to the block after Durham’s visit.
On Thursday, Durham watched as a mail carrier attempted to make a delivery, only to immediately leave.
“I was watching the mailman attempt to make a delivery today,” Durham explained. “He pulled up here in front of this house, got out of his truck and took two steps into that yard and saw the blonde dog laying there under the tree. The dog didn’t move. It didn’t bark. It didn’t stand up, nothing. It was just laying there in the shade. He immediately jumped in his truck and drove off. When he came back around, I went out in the street and flagged him down to get my neighbor’s mail.”
According to Durham, mail delivery has been a complete coin toss for months, depending heavily on who is driving the truck.
He said a regular carrier previously explained that a substitute worker was afraid of the dogs across the street, leading to skipped deliveries.
This latest suspension has left vulnerable residents waiting on critical mail.
“There’s a lot of elderly people here that depend on Social Security and all these agencies send mail that has to be responded to in a timely manner. Until yesterday, none of these people had any idea their mail was even being interrupted.”
In a statement to FOX23, the USPS confirmed that delivery was suspended due to loose and unrestrained dogs in the area.
The postal service emphasized that it is the responsibility of animal owners to keep their pets secured in order to ensure the safety of carriers.
To help local pet owners prevent these types of delivery disruptions, the USPS has released several safety tips for pet owners.
They advise pet owners to either keep their dogs inside the house, behind a secure fence or on a leash whenever a carrier comes by.
They also recommend keeping dogs in a separate room before opening the front door to sign for or accept a package as dogs have been known to burst through screen doors or glass storm doors to protect their territory.
While FOX23 crews were in the neighborhood on Thursday, they spotted one of the roaming dogs in question.
Neighbors said the animal is generally peaceful unless someone steps directly onto his yard.
As a temporary solution, the USPS told neighbors they can travel to pick up their mail at the Northeast Station on Independence Street.
While that is only a three minute drive, many of the neighborhood’s residents don’t own cars. For them, securing their mail means embarking on a 16 minute walk in the middle of the hot Oklahoma summer.
The City of Tulsa told FOX23 that Animal Services officers have dispatched to the block at least twice, but crews did not spot any loose dogs during those visits and could not locate any owners.
Durham, who has personally called the city a dozen times to report the issue, feels there has been a major lack of response.
He said the core of the problem lies within Tulsa Animal Services’ limited operating hours since field operations only run for four hours a day from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
“A dog’s not going to be laying in the front yard baking in the sun between the hours of 2:00 and 6:00, so to drive down the street and look in somebody’s front yard and not see a dog and think you’ve solved the problem somehow is ridiculous.”
Ultimately, Irvington Avenue residents said they do not want to walk to a post office station just to receive their property.
They’re asking for a coordinated response between the city and the postal service to resolve the issue safely so they can start getting their mail normally again.
