Chicks mill round a stall on the First State Animal Heart and SPCA on Friday in Camden, Del. They’re amongst 12,000 chicks that had been left deserted in a U.S. Postal Service truck for 3 days.
Mingson Lau/AP
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Mingson Lau/AP
A Delaware animal shelter is working to seek out new properties for hundreds of chicks that had been left deserted in a U.S. Postal Service truck for 3 days.
Delaware’s Division of Agriculture stated it acquired a name earlier this month from USPS saying the Postal Service had an “undeliverable field of child birds.” About 12,000 chicks had been shipped from the Pennsylvania-based Freedom Ranger Hatchery to farms throughout the nation.
State agricultural officers say that once they discovered the chicks at a USPS distribution heart in Delaware, round 4,000 had been lifeless.
The greater than 8,000 that survived had been taken to the First State Animal Heart and SPCA in Camden, Del., and had been put up for adoption on Could 13, the shelter stated in a social media submit.
In the identical submit, the shelter says that the chicks had been left with out meals, water or temperature management.
The shelter didn’t reply to NPR’s emails or telephone calls, however the Related Press experiences that only some hundred chicks have been adopted.
Freedom Ranger Hatchery says it hasn’t gotten clear solutions from USPS in regards to the state of affairs.
USPS says it is working to “forestall such incidents sooner or later”
In an announcement, USPS stated, “We’re conscious that there are unlucky uncommon situations the place lack of life happens with this sort of cargo.” It added that it’s working immediately with the hatcheries, carriers concerned and supply operations specialists to stop such incidents sooner or later.
Freedom Ranger Hatchery informed the AP it can’t take the chicks again as a consequence of biosecurity issues. In an electronic mail to NPR, the hatchery stated that this was a routine cargo that by no means reached its vacation spot as a consequence of a USPS error.
“This loss has compounding results with the various small household farms throughout America that had been relying on these birds,” the hatchery stated.
Packing containers of dwell poultry should be “correctly ventilated, of correct building and power to bear protected transport within the mail,” in keeping with USPS’ web site. USPS pointers require that hatcheries make sure that all packaging necessities are met in order that poultry could be delivered inside 72 hours of hatching.
Though USPS has been transport dwell animals for over 100 years, some animal rights teams like PETA say it isn’t protected sufficient for them to journey by mail. In an announcement in 2020, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk stated chicks are weak “once they’re despatched by way of the mail on lengthy, terrifying journeys with out meals or water.”
