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4,000 chicks died in the mail. They expose a darker truth about the meat industry.

8 1
24.05.2025
A chicken in a transport crate in Quebec, Canada. | Julie LP/We Animals

Late last month, some 14,000 baby chicks in Pennsylvania were shipped from a hatchery — commercial operations that breed chickens, incubate their eggs, and sell day-old chicks — to small farms across the country. But they didn’t get far. They were reportedly abandoned in a US Postal Service truck in Delaware for three-and-a-half days without water, food, or temperature control.

By the time officials arrived at the postal facility, 4,000 baby birds were already dead. The thousands of survivors — mostly chickens, but also some turkeys and quails — were taken to Delaware’s First State Animal Center and SPCA, which worked tirelessly to find homes to take in the animals as pets.

The incident has received extensive national news coverage, and it highlights an often hidden aspect of America’s network of small poultry farms and backyard chicken operations: the shipping of millions of live baby animals in the mail to be raised for eggs or meat.

Most chicks survive their journey through the mail, but many don’t. In 2020, 4,800 chicks shipped to farmers in Maine........

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