Thousands of Chicks Left in Postal Service Truck Overwhelm a Delaware Shelter
On May 2, the Delaware Department of Agriculture received a call from the Postal Service saying that it had 'an undeliverable box of baby birds.'
The department contacted First State Animal Center and SPCA in Camden, Del., and employees there, along with agriculture department employees, reported to the Postal Service's Delaware Processing and Distribution Center. There, they found 4,000 dead chicks and 10,000 living ones abandoned in a delivery truck, according to a news release from the Delaware Department of Agriculture. They also found turkeys, geese, quail and chukars, state agriculture officials said.
The chicks were part of a routine shipment from a Pennsylvania hatchery sent out on April 29. The department and First State Animal Center, a shelter, 'worked tirelessly' to transport the chicks there and provide them with care, according to the news release.
First State Animal Center said in a Facebook post that the chicks were abandoned in the delivery truck 'without water, food or temperature control.'
Since the chicks' arrival, the shelter has been asking for help from the state and the community as it has been caring for the thousands of chicks '24/7 with heat, food, water and survival care.' The shelter put the birds up for adoption on May 13.
The shelter was closed on Monday, and phone messages and emails to the shelter were not returned. But The Associated Press reported on Monday that only a few hundred of the chicks had been adopted.
The Freedom Ranger Hatchery, which raised and shipped the chicks, said in an emailed statement that the Postal Service had not explained why the chicks never made it to their destinations. The hatchery said it was unsure if it would be compensated for the loss, which has 'compounding effects with the many small family farms that were counting on these birds for their summer grow out schedules.'
The birds were supposed to be shipped to several states, and at least 2,000 were intended to be delivered to Spokane, Wash., according to the Delaware Department of Agriculture.
'Federal mail was given out without permission and was dumped on a shelter who was not prepared to care for this live cargo,' the hatchery said in the statement. 'Once the USPS recognized their error, the best option for the Postal Service would have been to expedite the packages to get to their end destination where the recipients were prepared to care for the birds.'
The U.S.P.S. did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday. But The A.P. reported that the Postal Service had said that it was aware of a process breakdown and was actively investigating what had occurred.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Condé Nast Traveler
27 minutes ago
- Condé Nast Traveler
How Boston's Revolutionary Spirit Is Writing Its Next Chapter
Where the past ends and the present begins can be hard to decipher in Boston. That park bench, that lamppost, that row house—it's safe to assume that each played a role in some pivotal moment in American history. But there are no plaques and statues on Marlon Solomon's itinerary. 'You're about to go on a tour of places that don't exist anymore,' he tells me on a late-spring morning as we set off from Nubian Square in Roxbury, a historically Black neighborhood just south of downtown Boston. I've been on plenty of walking tours, trolley tours, and duck tours in the city. But Solomon, the founder of the Afrimerican Academy, a local nonprofit supporting underserved multicultural communities, has taken a different approach. Drawing on oral histories and archival images, he has created an experience that asks guests to imagine bygone Black cultural landmarks that were erased in the 1960s mania for urban renewal that transformed so many American cities. Instead of the familiar stops of Boston's Freedom Trail, we go to an athletic field at Northeastern University that was once a vibrant community playground; a vacant grassy plot where an elite Black school once stood; and a dull apartment complex on the site of the church where Martin Luther King Jr. ministered when he met Coretta Scott. Their union is commemorated in a nearby mural by the street artist Rob 'ProBlak' Gibbs. 'We sell history in Boston,' Solomon says. 'That's what we do.' But in redlined Black areas like Roxbury, 'there are no historical sites for us to show. We have to find ways to convert this history into revenue.' The Chinatown Gate entrance to Boston's centrally located Chinatown Christian Harder State Representative Christopher Worrell outside Dorchester's Strand Theatre Christian Harder Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinatown Community Land Trust, which works to preserve and grow the neighborhood, is on a similar mission. Her new Immigrant History Trail of the Chinatown neighborhood displays a series of interactive placards focusing not only on the area's Chinese community, but also on the vibrant Little Syria that thrived here a century ago. 'To only talk about the Chinese would not be doing justice to the rich history of the neighborhood,' she says as I study a black-and-white portrait of a Syrian family on a stoop with a hookah. With Boston gearing up to celebrate the country's semiquincentennial in 2026, Lowe is part of the Commemoration Commission, assembled by the city council to spotlight layers of Boston's history beyond its Revolutionary War credentials. Just as Boston's history is deeply intertwined with America's, my own past is everywhere here. Even two decades since I moved away, the opening bars of the Dropkick Murphys' Celtic-punk anthem 'I'm Shipping Up to Boston' are still a Proustian trigger, lurching me back to my days riding the T from my apartment near Fenway Park to work in the Back Bay. At that age I couldn't wait to get out: Boston felt too small, too clean, too dull, too homogeneous. A place where the invisible boundaries that partition communities felt difficult to transcend. I've spent the past few decades continent-hopping, from New York City to Cape Town, Mumbai to Dubai, all cities I found more cosmopolitan and exciting than Boston. But my Hyderabadi parents still live in the suburbs and so I've kept finding my way back, wondering when Boston will catch up with the world. Pistachio butter toast and Turkish-style eggs at Jadu, in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood Christian Harder Yng-Ru Chen at Praise Shadows, her art gallery in Brookline Christian Harder I'm starting to think the moment has come. From Fort Point to Southie, Dorchester to the South End, weathered-brick buildings are being revitalized with new restaurants and galleries, shifting the city's center of gravity away from well-trammeled districts like Back Bay and the North End. Changing demographics (Boston has for years been a majority-minority city) have played a role in this metamorphosis, but there are other forces at play. 'I really give Mayor Wu credit,' says Lowe. Since 2021, when she became the first woman and first person of color elected mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu has often enacted policies to support minority communities. 'Her vision,' Lowe adds, 'is to say, 'When we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, we want to celebrate all the voices that are here and that haven't been heard yet.' '
Associated Press
29 minutes ago
- Associated Press
DC mayor emphasizes ‘working collaboratively' with feds amid Trump takeover
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world's population sees AP journalism every day.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
I'm stuck between expensive teens and aging parents. I won't have a carefree time in my life.
When my kids were babies, I looked forward to a time when they wouldn't need me as much. Now that they are all self-sufficient, it's my parents who need my help. It means my husband and I won't get a carefree life. When my children were small and my life was a sleep-deprived struggle to navigate the chaos and tantrums of daily life, all I could dream of was the day when I could leave the baby years behind and finally get my life back. Now my children are almost fully fledged adults. They drive, they make their own breakfast, they have their own plans and lives. But the freedom I envisaged for so long has turned out to be elusive, as, just at the time my teens may need me less, it is my parents who need me more. I'm part of the sandwich generation My parents are both now well into their 80s. There is an increasing number of doctor's appointments to worry about, mysterious chest pains or dizzy spells to lose sleep over, and the less tangible sadness of seeing them every time a little bit frailer, a fraction less in charge. And while my teens may physically need me less, their financial needs have grown exponentially. Now there is college to be paid for, gas to fill up their cars, contributions toward rent and phone bills, vacations I want them to go on with their friends, and concerts I want them to experience. As we are living longer than ever, and having children later, more and more of us find ourselves part of the sandwich generation, worrying simultaneously about ageing parents while supporting our not-quite-grown-up children. For my husband and me, it means we won't be getting a glimpse of a carefree life anytime soon. It used to be a baby's cry that would have us stumbling out of bed in the small hours, grumbling and half-crazed with lack of sleep. Now it is the fear of the dreaded 3 a.m. phone call that keeps us awake, that could equally come from an older parent relaying a panicked visit to the ER or a desperate teenager, stranded at the side of the road with a flat tyre. I'm not getting any younger At the same time, additional grit in the sandwich filling is the fact that my husband and I, too, are not getting any younger. When we had babies, we were young, fit, and full of energy. Our young bodies and minds could cope with sleepless nights and late-night dashes to the ER. We had no competing claims on being needed. Now our middle-aged bodies and minds are tug-of-war in two directions. My husband is now completely grey; he ignores his rising blood pressure, I ignore an aching hip, disobedient hormones, and brain fog. Always being 'on call' takes its toll. We can never truly switch off. We can't throw caution to the wind, turn off our phones, or go off-grid for a day; there may be an old or a young person who needs us. I carry a lot of guilt There is also the guilt. Mother's guilt and daughter's guilt. However much I do for my children, could I do more? Am I a good enough mom, am I too much a friend, not enough a parent, should I have cried in front of the kids, should their dad and I have argued in front of them? What about the time I got blackout drunk at a party and they saw me puke in the driveway? An endless list of self-flagellation that every parent will recognise. At the same time, the daughter's guilt. Am I visiting my parents enough? Am I calling enough? Should I be running daily casseroles over to them? Should I be insisting they wear a personal alarm that directly alerts the emergency services? And if I'm honest, I feel guilt at the anger I feel when I see them getting older and weaker. Anger at them for allowing themselves to age, allowing themselves to one day be taken from us. And yet, and yet. Like all things, there is also a bittersweet joy nestled in the discomfort. There is nothing like the feeling of having our three generations all together in that moment. The three boys, son, dad, and grandad watching a cricket match. The women, my daughter, I, and my mom watching a movie and crying at the same part. In these moments, there is such utter joy and love. In these moments, the sandwich has never tasted so sweet . Read the original article on Business Insider Solve the daily Crossword
