Springtime is generally viewed as a time of birth and renewal of life. But for some animals, it can bring just the opposite. The practice of shipping day-old chicks through the mail increases in the spring — often with deadly results.
While it seems common sense that live animals should be treated differently from ordinary mail, the U.S. Postal Service has for years been treating baby birds as just that, giving them little more consideration than any other parcel.
Poultry hatcheries commonly ship day-old chicks in cardboard boxes with no provision for food, water or temperature regulation. These chicks are shipped across the country in all kinds of temperature extremes, from sweltering summer highs to freezing winter lows.
While no statistics are kept on just how many of these birds survive their journey through the mail, anecdotal tales abound of baby birds who never made it to their final destinations alive. Just this year, The HSUS has heard from several postal workers across the country whose daily encounters include boxes of dying baby birds.
Recent Postal Complaints
"I have been working for the U.S. Postal Service for more than 20 years…During this time I have regularly seen adult birds and boxes of baby chicks come through the mail…Often many or all of them are dead…the live ones are climbing over the dead and dying ones and cheeping when we get them…" California, April 1, 2006.
"[T]here have been numerous times that these birds have come through our docks dead or dying…On March 14th [2006] a box of 24 chicks arrived on the dock headed for Black Duck. It was 3 degrees above zero and all of them were dead." Minnesota, April 9, 2006.
Last year, a postal worker in California gave The HSUS a video of dead and dying birds received in the mail. (View in Windows Media or Real Player.)
The Postal Service is now considering new procedures regarding the shipment of baby birds in the mail and they need to hear from you. Click here to take action .
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