Mailable Live Animals

This is how I sometimes get my chicken, turkey, duck and geese chicks. The other is from local sources.

At one time you could send human children by US Mail as well.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-chil...

When I had security clearances involving classified documents and dealt with radioactive materials, BOTH of those were shippable by US Mail also.

In case it's helpful to know, it's highly likely that the baby birds that you helped shipped were destined for pretty nice places! Factory farms don't get their birds this way, but small farms do. Also of note, of the dozens times that we got baby birds shipped to our farm when I was a child, it was very very rare to find more than one or two that didn't survive the trip. And sometimes we'd get shipments without a single loss.

Surely it's cheaper to dispose of it with your other garbage, or take it to a local dump, than paying postage to "mail" it?

I love lists like this. I remember waiting for a Greyhound bus and reading the list of prohibited items and imagining the stories behind each one. It ran on for pages. Human heads were not allowed, even if frozen. Martial arts weapons like swords, nunchucks and throwing stars got a section all their own, separate from guns and knives. Each type of bodily fluid was listed separately, lest someone assume that their jar of urine didn't count.

The specific types of day-old poultry named in 526.31 are mailable subject to the following requirements:

Poultry that is not more than 24 hours old and is presented for mailing in the original, unopened hatchery box from the hatchery of origin. The date and hour of hatching is noted on the box by a representative of the hatchery who has personal knowledge thereof. (For Collect on Delivery (COD) shipments made by a hatchery for the account of others, the name or initials and address of the hatchery or the Post Office box number and address of the hatchery must be prominently shown for this standard.) Box is properly ventilated, of proper construction and strength to bear safe transport in the mail, and is not stacked more than 10 units high. Day–old poultry is mailed early enough in the week to avoid receipt at the office of address (in case of missed connections) on a Sunday, a national holiday, or the afternoon before a Sunday or national holiday. Day–old poultry can be delivered to the addressee within 72 hours of the time of hatching. Day-old poultry sent via surface transportation, must include special handling service fees, in addition to regular postage. Day-old poultry sent via air transportation must meet all provisions of the airlines. Delivery of the mailpiece is dependent on the availability of air carriers having available equipment to safely deliver the day–old poultry within the specified time limit. Day–old poultry that is first shipped via a commercial air express or air cargo service and then presented for mailing to a final destination must be in good condition and properly packaged as specified in 526.32a-e. Boxes of day–old poultry of about identical size, securely fastened together to prevent separation in transit, may be accepted for mailing as a single parcel, provided the total length and girth combined does not exceed Postal Service limits.