For more than 100 years, mail-order birds have been delivered to farmers' doorsteps through the U.S. Postal Service. But since the pandemic, more and more boxes are showing up silent — an indication that the birds haven't survived.
Postal delays have increased since 2020, first due to workforce constraints from the pandemic and later because a new ten-year plan for the USPS requires mail to slow down to save money.
But for live animal shipments, those delays can prove deadly, and a burden to small businesses that sell them. One breeder, Kelly Warren, has lost hundreds of dollars on a single shipment.
"When a customer receives a bunch of dead birds, she refunds them, and it's out of pocket. She might get shipping cost back, but that doesn't always happen," said Kavahn Mansouri, a reporter for the Midwest Newsroom, who recently published an issue on the phenomenon.
- Kavahn Mansouri, investigative reporter, Midwest Newsroom
