
Mail-order chicks are arriving dead, costing Maine farmers thousands of dollars - danso
https://www.pressherald.com/2020/08/19/dead-chick-deliveries-costing-maine-farmers-thousands-of-dollars/
======
esalman
I am from SE Asia and postal system is non-existent to most people in my
native country. Last time I sent anyone a letter was to my grandfather 30
years ago.

I came to the US 5 years back, and I still marvel at how crucial USPS is to
the growth of tech and economy here. You see, back in my country an
entrepreneur would have to tackle the last-mile delivery problem using their
own fleet. Only in last 2-3 years ride-sharing service has become commonplace
in major metropolis and as a result facebook-based housewife-run boutique shop
businesses have boomed. But here in the US, you could always stick an address
on a parcel and forget about it.

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howlin
From the article:

Usually they arrive every three weeks like clockwork,” she said Wednesday.
“And out of 100 birds you may have one or two that die in shipping.

The wrongness of what's happening here is not just that the Post Office is
experiencing unusual delays. Even the normal state of affairs shows a
grotesque indifference to life.

~~~
marcinzm
You do know that for every chicken you eat a male chick was pulverized to
death, right? (in the US, some countries prefer suffocation).

~~~
howlin
Yes, I am very well aware of this. Which is why I don't eat chickens, other
animals, or consume any other livestock product.

But every once in a while I forget the fractal nature of the horrors we
inflict on any animal that is unlucky enough to get caught up in our
agricultural industry.

~~~
Arnt
"Caught up" is a good way to put it. Imagine what this does to bird nests:
[https://cdn.agriland.ie/uploads/2015/03/Harvesting_winter_wh...](https://cdn.agriland.ie/uploads/2015/03/Harvesting_winter_wheat_2_OGP-e1503043417724-730x375.jpg)

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poulsbohemian
I’d been expecting articles like this to pop up soon. USPS has long been known
for its efficiency in moving poultry around the country. All our birds arrived
by mail as day-old chicks and like the article indicated, it isn’t uncommon to
move hundreds at a time with very limited loss. That said - it’s only possible
to make this work because the USPS has had a functioning, effective system for
decades, where birds are born Monday and typically to their destination
somewhere in the country no later than wednesday. The boxes have a chemical
warmer and the birds have just enough food in their tummies to make it across
the country. When I started hearing about these delays, I knew this would be a
problem as their little lives are on a time-sensitive system that works
because everyone from the hatchery to the receiving farmer understands the
criticality.

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wtn
USPS regulations for day-old poultry:
[https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm](https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm)

~~~
oneplane
Why is it even allowed to mail animals at all? I would have expected a
specialised service for that.

~~~
idbehold
People used to mail children through the postal service:
[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-
chil...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-children-
sent-through-mail-180959372/)

~~~
cipher_system
Lol, I hope the mortality rate were lower than the 2% for birds.

------
bennettfeely
I'm curious how they protect the chicks in the mail during shipping when the
temperature has been in the low-mid 90s the past few weeks in PA. Even in
Maine it hit 90.

~~~
ed25519FUUU
Like the article says it’s worked perfectly for a very long time. Having it be
too warm is probably much safer than a little cold (our chicks would gather
directly under the heat lamp and I wondered why it never bothered them). The
problem here is probably dehydration from having shipments intentionally
delayed.

~~~
poulsbohemian
I agree - dehydration / starvation is the primary issue here, followed by the
risks of simply more moving and shaking.

------
csours
Birds today, your medication tomorrow. The USPS provides a public good well
beyond its cost.

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legerdemain
Other things of commercial significance that you can mail: bees.[1]

[https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm](https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm)

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mikeyouse
The long tail of business that's transacted on the assumption that the USPS is
a reliable, cost-effective business is absolutely massive.

I honestly can't believe it's being dismantled in this manner for purely
short-term partisan goals by an ostensibly "pro-business" political party.

~~~
TedDoesntTalk
> I honestly can't believe it's being dismantled

I think your news is about a day old. USPS backed off any changes until later:

[https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/18/usps-
postmas...](https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/18/usps-postmaster-
general-louis-dejoy-election)

[https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/18/politics/post-office-
dejo...](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/18/politics/post-office-
dejoy/index.html)

~~~
TehCorwiz
They’ve already removed hundreds of sorting machines, thousands of blue boxes,
removed almost all overtime and a host of other things. Sure they “stopped”
but those things aren’t coming back. Damage done.

~~~
stjohnswarts
Eh I've heard no where near those numbers, do you have a source for that?

~~~
mikeyouse
The original reduction plan as detailed in a presentation from May called for
nearly 1,000 sorting machines to be dismantled. It's hard to say how much of
that plan has been completed (we'll likely find out more next Monday during
the Congressional hearings) but it's absolutely that order of magnitude.

[https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7035434-USPS-
Equipme...](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7035434-USPS-Equipment-
Reduction-Plan.html#document/p1)

------
peterwwillis
At some point, probably when it's too late, people will realize that Trump
appointing people who intentionally destroy the agencies they oversee was an
intentional plan to destabilize the government.

~~~
nexuist
This is not surprising nor recent. American politicians have been trying to
dismantle the government for decades; almost immediately after the New Deal
era.

See also: regulatory capture, gerrymandering, campaign financing, etc.

------
oneplane
Who thought it was a good idea to 'mail' live animals? Seems like a rather
harsh thing to do... especially when it's done using a process that doesn't
care about what it is mailing. (regardless of who is influencing that process)

~~~
zorpner
This is a normal, regulated, and common use of the USPS.

~~~
oneplane
Seems rather absurd to put a live animal in a box and put it in a process that
is designed for moving non-living man-made objects around. The only time I've
heard about animals shipping via a postal service was illegal imports of birds
(tied up and put in tubes).

~~~
omg_ponies
That's an inaccurate statement. The shipment of live animals via USPS is a
specific service documented in detail at
[https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm](https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm)

These include bees, day–old poultry, adult birds, and small, harmless,
cold–blooded animals.

