• carrylex@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 小时前

    Context

    Tbf most of the other companies were not around back then (100 years ago) so maybe they would have also shipped kids (for profit)…

  • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
    164·
    9 小时前

    I honestly think it’s kinda sweet how it worked to be honest.
    People showed up, gave their kid postage, and told the clerk they were mailing them. Clerk was confused for a minute, and then conceded that there was nothing technically forbidden about that. Kid hops on the scale, postage is correct, and the kid waits behind the counter until the trip to train, where they ride with the operator.

    Basically people gently gaming the system and the people involved saying “you’re technically correct” and then looking after a random child.
    They only stopped it because they decided you can’t operate a train and keep a kid safe at the same time, and weight is not a great way to price childcare.

    • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
      93·
      9 小时前

      Yeah, I actually think these types of thing are a healthy thing for society.

      The fact some parents were like “I can’t afford a train ticket” and some postal workers just went with it is great.

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 小时前

        i mean, some parents are currently like “i can only afford one plane ticket” and just have to hope the adult their kid gets sat by is safe. it kind of feels the same way.

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
          3·
          2 小时前

          Going through the postal service might have been safer than other forms of travel because there would have been more explicit exchanges of custody. Like put a kid on a passenger train and they could just get off and get lost before getting on a connecting train and who knows what happened to them? They arrived on train A but never got on train B.

          Whereas with mail, the kid becomes the operator’s responsibility. If the kid is handed over to the operator to ride train A but then is nowhere to be found at the destination, then that operator is the prime suspect. Or the operator hands the kid off to the next operator in the journey and the kid is now their responsibility.

          And even if you have a babysitter, passenger stations are going to be a lot more crowded than cargo stations, so keeping track of a kid will be a lot easier, plus the driver is the babysitter for the postal service, so they won’t miss their train or take the wrong one by accident (unless they are routed incorrectly lol).

  • TomMasz@piefed.socialEnglish
    77·
    10 小时前

    My wife’s grandfather worked for the post office in a rural area and delivered live chicks to farms. With enough postage you could mail just about anything.

      • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 小时前

        You can but they may arrive slightly squishy.

        The post office changed their provider for air mail a few years ago and they don’t seem to want to give priority to living things and frequently stack heavy items on top of live stock boxes…

        Most farms try to source them locally now to avoid killing hundreds of chicks while in transit.

      • boonhet@lemmy.zip
        8·
        6 小时前

        I read your comment before the one you replied to and my mind certainly went somewhere other then farms

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
          10·
          7 小时前

          It’s funny to put major in quotes. If you look at shipping volumes then USPS is really the only major carrier. Since they have to deliver everywhere they deliver something like 120 billion things a year, where the second is like…7 billion.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        16·
        9 小时前

        Yeah they are quite hardy. Have ordered on 2 seperate occasions, all arrive healthy. When a chick is born they essentially consume the yolk which will allow them to go a couple days without needing food/water. Being a live shipment you usually pick it up at the post office, so it doesn’t have to get trucked around all day. (Also meaning you can grab them as soon as they are supposed to be there and get them all settled in under a heat source and food/water quickly).

      • rynn@piefed.socialEnglish
        5·
        8 小时前

        While it may seem kind of weird I’ve raised about 100 chickens that came via the mail.

        I haven’t lost any of these and they all lived a great life outside on the farm.

    • bedwyr@piefed.caEnglish
      5·
      7 小时前

      They still do deliver chicks. It’s not very expensive either.

      There is like a minimum number you have to get though that might be from the companies selling them rather than the post though, so many go to local places for smaller amounts.

      • CentipedeFarrier@piefed.socialEnglish
        3·
        5 小时前

        The post office doesnt impose a minimum number, for the record. They don’t care, but don’t like sending them at all. However, its pretty expensive, so if you aren’t paying through the nose for the shipping, the seller is probably subsidizing that cost and that’s where the minimum comes from. I just ordered a trio of specialty breeds this past spring, but the place I bought from sends individual birds if you really wanna spend $70+ for one chick.

  • JayDee@lemmy.world
    24·
    9 小时前

    Here’s some context. Context

    I do love that these postmen also just staight-up posed for photos with the babies they were carrying. Staight up the same shit we’d do now.

    Also this seems like the exact kind of child endangerment that would happen in a Ghibli film.

    • Manjushri@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      3 小时前

      Don’t order live animals via the mail. Consider all the cuts to the USPS since Trump’s first term. It is simply unbelievable that shipping a live animal via USPS is considered humane. Day old chicks are shipped all the time and are considered to be in the same category as food or produce. Many have always died during shipping because the process is not designed to handle live animals, but since Trump’s first term it has gotten far, far worse.

      Under current policy, chicks are classified as perishable goods within the U.S. Mail system and handled in the same logistical category as items such as food or plants. This distinction matters. Because they are treated as parcels rather than live animals, they are not subject to the animal welfare standards required for other forms of live animal transport.

      In fact, in 2020, in Maine alone, 4,800 baby chicks arrived dead after Trump’s postal cuts kicked into high gear.

      The USPS has been allowing live animals to be sent through the mail since 1918. But with the current Postal Service crisis, there has been a huge spike in the number of chicks that are dying on the journey. In recent weeks, 4,800 baby chicks that were sent through the mail arrived dead to recipients in Maine alone. In other parts of New England, several other farmers have also reported receiving hundreds of dead chicks in the mail.

      Meanwhile in California, workers at a large mail-sorting facility in South Los Angeles “…fell so far behind processing packages that by early August, gnats and rodents were swarming around containers of rotted fruit and meat, and baby chicks were dead inside their boxes,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “This month, one worker said, she found a box with air holes in a pile of packages. Instead of hearing the gentle sounds of baby chicks, she heard nothing.”

      If you have any compassion for living animals, do not ship them via USPS.

    • OakTree@lemmy.zip
      6·
      6 小时前

      I was working at a UPS sorting facility when a box of live snakes broke open. That was a fun day

    • kubica@fedia.io
      3·
      9 小时前

      Maybe they thought it only mattered that they weren’t alive at the end of the travel. Understandable mistake.