U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree says Mainers have been losing shipments of live chicks because of delivery delays by the postal service.
Pingree says she is asking lawmakers from both parties to sign on to a letter urging both the Agriculture Department and the Postal Service to address the problem. She says her office has heard complaints about the delivery of dead chicks from farmers and from families.
“There is nothing worse than promising your kids that you are going to start a backyard flock and they arrive all dead.”
Pingree says the postal service has been delivering baby chicks for a century and should treat the shipment of live animals as a priority.
“I would like to think that they could institute some regulations at the post office to make sure that the contractors they might be using are well trained, that this is raised to a priority again as it has been for most of the last 100 years.”
