(19 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Camden, Delaware - 16 May 2025
1. Various hundreds of chicks milling around a stall
2. SOUNDBITE (English) John Parana, Executive Director, First State Animal Center and SPCA:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
“They were sitting at the post office and somehow were not delivered.”
3. Dozens of chicks in a carrier
4. SOUNDBITE (English) John Parana, Executive Director, First State Animal Center and SPCA:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"The… investigator… was guessing that there was 8,100 birds that were still alive. A lot of them were dead on arrival due to being in this truck for three and a half days with no food, no water and extreme heat.”
5. First State Animal Center and SPCA barn holding the chicks
6. Hundreds of chicks milling around a stall
7. First State Animal Center and SPCA sign
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
8. SOUNDBITE (English) John Parana, Executive Director, First State Animal Center and SPCA: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"On May 2nd, we got a phone call from an investigator from the Department of Agriculture informing the shelter… that we were going to be receiving 240 birds that were left at the post office in Newcastle, Delaware.”
9. Dozens of chicks in a carrier
10. SOUNDBITE (English) John Parana, Executive Director, First State Animal Center and SPCA: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++
”When the large truck came in and backed in and we found out it was 240 to 300 — crates — and each crate contained numerous birds.”
11. Chicks being adopted
12. SOUNDBITE (English) John Parana, Executive Director, First State Animal Center and SPCA:
”These crates were wet with dead fowl and it was a mess.”
13. Dozens of chicks in a carrier
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
14. SOUNDBITE (English) John Parana, Executive Director, First State Animal Center and SPCA:
”We want to get them adopted just due to the fact that we are the SPCA. We are a no-kill shelter in the state of Delaware.”
15. Chick feed
16. SOUNDBITE (English) John Parana, Executive Director, First State Animal Center and SPCA: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++
”The Deputy Secretary told me they're going to try to go after the United States Postal Service to see if they can recoup and would let us know… it leaves us footing the bill now and in the future.”
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
17. SOUNDBITE (English) John Parana, Executive Director, First State Animal Center and SPCA:
“The birds were released to us and so they are our responsibility now. Our care and our dime.”
19. Hundreds of chicks milling around a stall
STORYLINE:
A Delaware animal shelter is trying to care for and rehome thousands of chicks that survived being left in a postal service truck for three days. Trapped in a warm enclosure, without food and water, thousands died before they were discovered.
Involved parties are still awaiting answers as to how 12,000 chicks were abandoned within a Delaware mail distribution center. The United States Postal Service said in an email that it was aware of a process breakdown and was actively investigating what occurred.
Pennsylvania-based Freedom Ranger Hatchery raised the chicks for their weekly distribution to clients across the country, said a spokesperson for the company. Due to biosecurity concerns, the hatchery cannot take the chicks back.
The spokesperson said it would have been best if USPS, after discovering the chicks, had completed delivery as the recipients would have been adequately equipped to handle the birds — even malnourished ones.
For more than two weeks, the surviving chicks have been nursed and cared for at First State Animal Center and SPCA, said John Parana, executive director.
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