USPS changes blamed for deliveries of thousands of dead chicks: 'We've never had a problem like this before'

Authored by thehill.com and submitted by Aluliman
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Poultry farmers in Maine have complained of an increasing number of young chicks dying en route to their farms, blaming it on operational changes to the U.S. Postal Service.

Pauline Henderson, who owns Pine Tree Poultry in New Sharon, Maine, said all 800 chicks in a shipment from Pennsylvania were dead by the time they arrived last week.

“We’ve never had a problem like this before,” she told the Portland Press-Herald. “Usually they arrive every three weeks like clockwork. And out of 100 birds you may have one or two that die in shipping.”

Henderson told the newspaper the chicks shipped in the same amount of time they usually do, but that they appeared to have been mishandled en route. She added that thousands of birds shipped through the Postal Service processing center in Shrewsbury, Mass., before shipment to Maine and New Hampshire appeared to have been similarly affected.

Under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Louis DeJoyClyburn bashes Postal cuts: It's a service, not a business Civic groups move forward with lawsuit over Postal Service slowdown Schumer demands details of postmaster general selection process MORE, the Postal Service has seen several operational changes, including reductions to sorting equipment and a proposal to end all overtime. Rep. Chellie Pingree Rochelle (Chellie) PingreeTrump's pitch to Maine lobstermen falls flat Trump directs aid to Maine lobster industry crushed by tariffs Democrats spend big to put Senate in play MORE (D-Maine) said in a letter to DeJoy and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue George (Sonny) Ervin PerdueUSPS changes blamed for deliveries of thousands of dead chicks: 'We've never had a problem like this before' Maine delegation fears Trump won't deliver on trade aid for lobster industry Trump's pitch to Maine lobstermen falls flat MORE that she has received several similar complaints about poultry in her district.

“It’s one more of the consequences of this disorganization, this sort of chaos they’ve created at the post office and nobody thought through when they were thinking of slowing down the mail,” Pingree said. “And can you imagine, you have young kids and they are getting all excited about having a backyard flock and you go to the post office and that’s what you find?"

“This is a system that’s always worked before and it’s worked very well until these changes started being made,” she added.

The Postal Service is particularly vital for poultry farmers as no private entities ship live animals. Maine has no hatcheries of its own, relying on interstate shipments.

Loeden on August 20th, 2020 at 09:59 UTC »

So, that's been happening all year, the huge package volume without Christmas-level staffing has been kicking our ass. My one coworker says he's seen more dead chicks this year than in the last fifteen. It's actually late in the season to order them at this point and the last batches I've had have been alive (although still taking a day longer than they should.)

Even smaller delays are bad for chicks, they're only supposed to survive for a little while on what they have from the egg. Unless it's ducks they aren't even shipped with water, soo... Yup.

NotAnAce69 on August 20th, 2020 at 08:25 UTC »

Damn, its almost as if when you cut down on the USPS capacity, mail gets delayed and possibly results in live deliveries dying en route

Who wouldve thought

banban5678 on August 20th, 2020 at 07:57 UTC »

A lot of the articles lately don't really seem to fit the theme of this sub