Wanted: Homes for thousands of chicks that survived ‘misdirected USPS shipment’

A Delaware animal shelter is scrambling to find homes for thousands of baby chicks after a misdirected US Postal Service shipment in which thousands...

A Delaware animal shelter is scrambling to find homes for thousands of baby chicks after a "misdirected” US Postal Service shipment in which thousands more died, state officials said.

A Pennsylvania hatchery sent at least 10,000 birds to dozens of customers across the country through the US Postal Service, but their journey somehow stalled through a "misdirected USPS shipment” earlier this month, the Delaware Department of Agriculture said in a news release. 

The chicks ended up about 60 miles southeast of the farm at a Postal Service processing and distribution center.

For more than 36 hours, the chicks had no food or water as temperatures rose to the mid-80s, according to First State Animal Center and SPCA, the animal shelter now caring for them. By the time they were found, thousands had died.

It’s unclear how thousands of live animals died in the three days between when the chicks were shipped and then discovered. The Postal Service said it was aware of a breakdown in their process and investigating, the Associated Press reported.