Some of thousands of chicks that survived more than three days after being abandoned in a US Postal Service truck without food or water as temperatures climbed into the mid-80s. (Photo by First State Animal Center and SPCA)
A Delaware animal shelter is scrambling to find homes for thousands of baby chicks after a "misdirected” US Postal Service shipment in which thousands more died, state officials said.
A Pennsylvania hatchery sent at least 10,000 birds to dozens of customers across the country through the US Postal Service, but their journey somehow stalled through a "misdirected USPS shipment” earlier this month, the Delaware Department of Agriculture said in a news release.
The chicks ended up about 60 miles southeast of the farm at a Postal Service processing and distribution center.
For more than 36 hours, the chicks had no food or water as temperatures rose to the mid-80s, according to First State Animal Center and SPCA, the animal shelter now caring for them. By the time they were found, thousands had died.
It’s unclear how thousands of live animals died in the three days between when the chicks were shipped and then discovered. The Postal Service said it was aware of a breakdown in their process and investigating, the Associated Press reported.
On Tuesday, an agency spokesman said in a statement that officials are working with hatcheries and experts to prevent similar incidents, which he described as "rare.”
Freedom Ranger Hatchery raised the chicks for weekly deliveries to clients across the country and shipped them using the Postal Service, the company said in an email, calling the Postal Service the "industry standard for live chicks” that’s safe and humane "when everyone does their job correctly.”
The ad hoc facilities the First State Animal Center and SPCA set up to care for the thousands of chicks. (Photo by First State Animal Center and SPCA)
Freedom Ranger said the chicks never reached their destination because of "USPS error” and told the AP it couldn’t take them back because of biosecurity concerns.
The wayward shipment has hurt small farms across the country that were counting on the birds, Freedom Ranger said, adding that the Postal Service hasn’t provided clear answers about what went wrong.
The Delaware Department of Agriculture tapped First State to care for the birds. The Camden, Delaware, shelter said it’s been stretched thin by "this massive undertaking to save these babies.”
"We have been caring for these birds 24/7 with heat, food, water and survival care for the past 10 days, we have an amazing amount of survivors in the thousands despite terrible odds of survival,” First State said last week in a social media post.
Executive Director John Parana told The Washington Post that the shelter has already spent "well over” $100,000 in overtime, supplies and other expenses to care for the birds. His entire staff of about 40 have focused on saving the birds, even as more than 3,000 died in the days after they arrived, he added.
Parana estimated that about 5,000 birds have survived.
"Emotionally it’s distressing … but you do your best,” he said. "It’s been weighing on everybody’s minds.”
At a May 9 meeting, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chris Brosch said the department would not honor its years-long agreement to directly compensate the shelter for stray, neglected and abused animals, specifically $25 per animal intake and $5 each day to care for them, Parana said. Instead, officials will pay the shelter from any money it can recoup from the Postal Service, which Parana believes will be "difficult.”
Given the unusual circumstances, the shelter is willing to waive the intake fees, a concession that didn’t move state officials, Parana said. He said he’s "extremely disappointed” with the department, which did not respond to requests for comment, especially since they have had a good working relationship for about a decade.
"We don’t anticipate the [department] coming through for us,” Parana said, adding that if it doesn’t, the shelter plans to end their agreement June 1.
The shelter has turned to donors to help them cover the cost. They have given about $3,500 in the 2½ weeks since the shelter first asked for help with the chicks.
On May 2, the Postal Service called the Delaware Department of Agriculture to report that it had "an undeliverable box of birds” and followed up to clarify it had multiple boxes, the department said in the news release. State officials with the department’s poultry and animal health division helped transfer thousands of chicks to the animal shelter, some 45 miles south of where they were discovered.
The animal shelter said it received more than 8,000 birds, including baby chickens, turkeys, geese, quail and chukar partridges that Freedom Ranger Hatchery in Reinholds, Pennsylvania, had shipped on April 29, the department said. Parana said he found about 100 invoices on crates when they arrived at the shelter, listing destinations across the country, including Washington state, California, Texas, Ohio and Florida.
Because the birds had been left in "an inadequate environment for an extended period of time,” about 4,000 of them died by the time officials arrived, the agriculture department said.
The shelter didn’t tally the birds when they arrived and hasn’t gotten an exact figure since, Parana said.
"There’s so many. You can’t count them,” he added. "When they’re all huddled up together, it’s one big yellow ball.”
The shelter is asking people to adopt the birds and has already found homes for more than 3,000 of them, Parana said. He said the shelter has gotten "terrible pushback” for rejecting offers from people who want to kill the chicks for their meat, but he’s fine with that.
"We don’t care,” he said. "We’re not adopting them to be meat birds or slaughtered.”
