It’s the longest-running continual battle since the Hundred Years’ War, and there’ll soon be a new weapon at the front. It’s the battle between the postal carrier and the dog. Every year, thousands of postmen are bitten, and every year the current anti-dog peppermint spray is proven inadequate on the field of combat. It’s time to push the envelope, and Great Britain’s Royal Mail are debuting a new hand-held dog deterrent device that uses a loud hiss to stop a charging canine.
The new weapon is, from what I can tell, a combination of compressed air and a kazoo. The noise and the blast of air are supposedly enough to either scare off a charging dog or disorient it enough so the postal carrier can make a quick getaway. However, couldn’t this be the start of an arms race between the two sides?
Dogs get motorcycles; postal carriers get air horns. Maybe it’s time to cut out the middle man and just have dogs deliver the mail.
Tags: sound weapons, anti-dog air horn, postman, postal carrier, weird science, Bite-Back Campaign, Royal Mail
