Thousands of baby chicks that were stuck in a U.S. Postal Service truck for days have been adopted, according to the Delaware animal shelter that helped rescue them.
“Every single one went to a ‘no kill’ home, including private individuals and rescue farms,” wrote the First State Animal Center and SPCA in Camden, about 5 miles southwest of Dover.
According to the shelter, staff have spent the past three weeks caring for the chicks and screening them for adoption. The shelter reported that there were quail, geese, and chicks, all of which were left in the postal service vehicle with no food, water, or temperature control.
There were about 10,000 birds altogether, originally shipped from south-central Pennsylvania hatchery Freedom Ranger Hatchery around April 29.
Because the birds have yolk in their abdomens, they are equipped to survive for days, said Stephen Horst, owner of Fifth Day Farm, which is under the same ownership of the hatchery. However, the birds ended up on the postal service truck for longer than intended.
The Delaware Department of Agriculture, who helped with the rescue, said the birds were bound for multiple states in the U.S. but were “misdirected” and ended up in Delaware. By the time the shelter got involved in the birds’ care, shelter employees said many had died. Still, there was an “amazing” number of survivors.
Adoptions began on May 13. John Parana, executive director of the animal center, said on May 20 that in order to adopt the birds, individuals had to agree to the center’s “no kill” policy.
“We praise these workers, our adopters, donors and supporters,” the shelter wrote in its most recent update. “We are still asking for donations to help recoup the revenue loss from other shelter operations, materials, feed and overtime paid out for the past 3 weeks.”
Birds were considered ‘undeliverable’
The birds were shipped around April 29, then on May 2, someone from the postal service’s Delaware Processing and Distribution Center called the state’s department of agriculture about “an undeliverable box of baby birds.”
The Department of Agriculture’s Poultry and Animal Health then stepped in and transferred the chicks to the First State Animal Center and SPCA.
According to the postal service, the agency has “established processes and procedures for the safe handling of these shipments.”
“We have been working with hatcheries for more than 100 years to safely transport mail-order chicks,” the agency said in a statement to USA TODAY on May 20.
When packages are properly packaged and labeled, the live animal parcels receive “special handling,” and hatcheries and farms are required to make sure all packaging requirements are met, the postal service continued. One requirement the hatcheries must meet is dropping poultry off to the postal service within 24 hours of hatching.
“We are aware that there are unfortunate rare instances where loss of life occurs with this type of shipment, including the recent May incident after which birds were sent to Delaware for rescue and delivered to a shelter within an hour,” the postal service said. “We are working directly with the hatcheries, other carriers involved, logistics partners, and our processing and delivery operations experts to prevent these incidents in the future.”
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Hatchery says shipment issue has led to loss for farms
Freedom Ranger Hatchery released a statement and said the shipment’s misdirection was due to a postal service error.
“This loss has compounding effects with the many small family farms across America that were counting on these birds for their summer grow out schedules,” the hatchery wrote. “We have not gotten any clear answers from the post office about this situation. We are unsure if we will receive any compensation for the loss.”
Horst, from Fifth Day Farm, previously said the birds are typically delivered within two days.
“I don’t know how they ended up where they did, but I do know that we’re asking questions too,” he told USA TODAY. He added that since the incident, the company has shipped birds with no issues.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Baby chicks abandoned on USPS truck are now all adopted
