Earlier this week, Oakland Animal Services impounded a "shipment" of 500 day-old broiler chicks bound for Washington State. Thanks to your generous support, EBAA was able to provide emergency supplies to care for the young birds at the shelter. If you are able to provide homes for a group of these birds, please contact us at info@eastbayanimaladvocates.org or (925) 487-4419.
Read an excerpt of a NBC-11 news report about the rescue:
"Oakland Animal Services took into custody 500 day-old chicks at the airport that were being transported by the United States Postal Service from a Santa Cruz hatchery to a destination in Washington State.
The Oakland Airport Postal Service discovered many sick and some dead chicks among the shipment of five boxes.
The workers contacted Oakland Animal Services for assistance who found 47 birds dead.
The chicks were from Cal Cruz Hatchery in Santa Cruz and by the time they reached the Oakland airport they had already been traveling for over 24 hours.
Animal Place, which frequently works with animal control agencies to help find adoptive homes for farmed animals confiscated in cruelty cases, is working to help place the chicks.
The birds were "broilers," or chickens raised for meat that are bred for rapid growth so they can be slaughtered at six weeks of age.
'Shipping chicks through the postal service is common practice,' said Adam Parascandola, Oakland Animal Services director. 'It is a given that many will die in route, but the losses are expected and accepted by industry. These poor chicks were less than a day old before their nightmarish journey began.'
It is legal to ship young birds through the mail, as long as they are under 24 hours old when presented for shipping, and delivered to the receiver within 72 hours.
The practice of sending chicks through the postal service began over 100 years ago, when the first commercial hatchery in America sent 50 chicks from New Jersey to Illinois in 1892."
