WANE-TV Coverage You Can Count On: Baby Chicks Meet Frosty Fate

A local man is claiming animal cruelty, after 44 day-old chicks he ordered through the mail died during transport.

[Jeff Reed]

A respoinsible shipper would use 40-60 hour heat packs AND would ship no later than Thursday to ensure delivery no later than Saturday being that no one delivers on Sundays. Shipper obviously has not ethics when it comes to the lives of the animals.

[Argh]

Only ship on Saturday! WTH? Others can ship during the weekday but he can't! Please

[Farmergal]

This man is a nut. He orders chicks in the middle of winter and they freeze and a refund is not enough! I have had birds shipped to me in the warmer months without a problem and I have had 50 chicks sent to me in Jan and all arrived alive.
I think this man wants his 15 mins of fame and his comments are incorrect as well as annoying. If he thinks it is animal cruelty then he should go and pick up chicks from a local hatchery and be quiet.

[ladycat]

This is ridiculous.

Hatcheries ship millions of chicks every year. I've received many hundreds of live, healthy chicks through the mail.

99.99% of the time there are NO problems with shipping chicks. On the very rare occasions that chicks arrive dead or dying, it's because the postal service screwed up and left the box somewhere unprotected along the route. This is NOT the hatchery's fault.

Murray has been shipping chicks for almost 100 years and they know what they're doing. My chicks from Murray have always been strong and healthy, except for one time when the post office misrouted a shipment. Again, the postal service's fault, not the hatchery!

[kim]

McMurray supplies so many people with beautiful healthy birds, but the moment someone screws up and orders during cold weather it gets blamed on the hatchery. The man should have read and paid attention to all warnings about cold-weather shipping. I understand some people don't realize how vulnerable such young little things are, but I stand with the hatchery on this one.

The public needs to direct negative attention elsewhere, like the puppy-mills and finding better ways to farm eggs than battary hens. A couple hundred baby chicks being frozen by accident by the post office, is miniscule by far. If you want something to complain about you should do research on Buckeye Farms and puppy-mills. Those are causes for concern.

It is unfortunate, but it was an accident. Accidents happen, you can't blame an owner for animal cruelty for accidents! It was the man who placed his order to be shipped! If he lived 500 miles away and thought it was cruel to ship live birds he would have figured out another way to get birds.

It's a very dissapointing event, but in the case of animal cruelty charges the man is only making a fool of himself. I understand the loss of something so cute and precious, but it was an accident. They were not purposely frozen and I'm sure he received (and accepted) a refund or replacement.

[Pete from Maine]

Is the post office not responsible for ensuring the package arrives unharmed? They know what is in the box. They have raised the rates they charge for handling the packages in the past year.

Regarding the day in transport, I don't understand. When I got my delivery last year the post office called me on Sunday to come get them, and it was a holiday to boot. How does Saturday factor in here? Once again, sounds like the post office should be answering questions.

[farm760657]

Ditto to Farmergal, ladycat, Kim and Pete. The USPS is at fault, NOT the hatchery!

[Phil Briggs]

It's obvious the first poster has no knowledge of poultry, or the ordering of live chicks.

I've been ordering day old chicks for ten years, from different hatcheries, with no losses.

I wonder if the guy in the video has ever ordered baby chicks, "cute and cuddly as puppies and kittens"... I fear the solution he'd seek would be the ban on shipping day old chicks anywhere, at anytime... and I also wonder if he had an animal rights agenda before this USPS delivery disaster.

I own several hundred chickens, and they live long and happy lives, under the open skies (not cooped up in cages).

[Kelly]

You order day old chicks in the winter, are you really surprised they froze?! If you order day old chicks in the middle of July they can die of the heat. Come on man, use your head and think this stuff through before you point fingers. Blame yourself, not the hatchery.

[P H Esper]

Sounds like a job for Bender and Bender Law offices.

[D Hancox-Australia]

This person ,who claims to be interested in the welfare of day old chicks, is a brainless idiot. Who in their right mind would order ,by post no less, day old chicks in the middle of Winter. This Winter has also been one of the coldest,with structural damage everywhere. Why would they order chicks from a hatchery so far away,if all they wanted was "cute" chicks?
They have now had their day of glory,been paid a refund,so what's next? Off to court for damages?
Brainless!

[astchf]

Amen!!