Thousands of baby chicks dying in mail after US Postal Service cuts
- Congress is investigating disruptions amid battle between Trump and Democrats over mail-in voting for coming election
- Hatcheries have been sending chicks through mail since 1918; they can survive 72 hours without food or water
Thousands of baby chicks shipped to New England farmers have arrived dead since the US Postal Service cut operations in recent months, adding to concerns about mail-delivery disruptions under investigation in Congress.
Haden Gooch, 29, who raises broiler chickens on a farm in Monmouth, Maine, said he has received 500 dead chicks over his last two shipments, losing about a fifth of his stock each time. Over six years of farming, he cannot remember losing more than 25 in a shipment before.
“I’m kind of freaked out. For me, that’s a significant loss,” Gooch said. “You’re talking thousands of dollars in lost revenue each time, and farming is such a thin-margin business.”
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, a Maine Democrat who raises chickens on her own small organic farm, said her office recently started receiving numerous complaints about such losses. She is raising the issue in a letter she is circulating among congressional colleagues that she plans to send on Friday to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
DeJoy is set to be questioned on Friday by the Senate Homeland Security Committee on an efficiency drive that spurred complaints of delivery disruptions. That is amid a broader fight between President Donald Trump and Democrats over mail-in voting.