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Mailable Live Animals

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Re: Mailable Live Animals

#91

Post by hashkb »

btilly wrote: post #87
vishbar wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is really interesting! I never had an ant farm, and I'm glad I didn't given what you've said. Are ants similar to bees in that there's one egg-laying "queen" that you have to gather, or can you just gather a collection of individuals from a colony? Your kid probably already knows about this, but have him check out the YouTuber AntsCanada. I'm not particularly into ants but I find his videos fascinating.

My kid has been aware of AntsCanada for a long time, and has purchased lots of supplies from them. Yes, most ants are similar to bees in that way. In fact ants and bees are very closely related. But a few kinds of ants (for example the invasive Argentine ants), can have multiple queens in a colony that cooperate with each other. The reason for this rule is the ease with which ants become invasive species, and how muc…

Does your kid know about SimAnt?

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#92

Post by dtparr »

neolog wrote: post #61
Diederich wrote: post #5

We've received day old chicks via USPS several times. The local post office had different procedures. Rather than trying to deliver, we were called as soon as they arrived requesting us to come and pick them up. It's pretty neat and kind of surprising at first. Of the hundreds of birds we've received via USPS, none of them were DOA.

Do you have a farm or something?

Probably just a hungry pet fox.

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#93

Post by dharmab »

np- wrote: post #77
Turing_Machine wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an incident maybe 30 years ago where a medical school employee went into New York (I think it was) to pick up a batch of human heads to be used for teaching purposes. He left the box in his car while taking care of another errand, and it was stolen. The box was found sitting on the sidewalk a few blocks away, with the heads still in it. One can only imagine what went through the thief's mind when he opened…

Regardless of the thief, it does seem a little concerning that the chain of custody for actual human heads involves being left unattended in a random employee's car.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_McCurdy#Post-mortem_comm...

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#94

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

btilly wrote: post #72

One important restriction on mailing is that you CANNOT mail fertile ants through USPS. Which means that all of those ant farms you see being sold to kids? You pay money, and get some sterile workers who are guaranteed to die pretty fast, leaving an unhappy kid. If you want a real ant farm, you need to either collect ants locally, or buy ants in person from someone who did themselves. And you'd better known the rules…

Actually there are two species that were made legal to ship in the US last year. More information (and for sale) here. [0]

[0] https://tarheelants.com/pages/ant-queen-and-colony-adoption

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#95

Post by RodgerTheGreat »

munificent wrote: post #57

There's a number of different "monthyl random box of stuff in some category" services these days. I had one for international snacks for a while. My wife did one for cat toys. I've seen one for fishing gear. Clearly, what the world needs is one for animals. One month: adorable baby chicks. Peep peep. Next month: S C O R P I O N S.

I understand that you are probably joking. For anyone less clear, please remember that animals have complex needs in terms of environment, food, and care to live healthy and pleasant lives. Adorable baby chicks are not a pet to be adopted lightly, without appropriate preparation. Chickens are in many ways much more demanding than a cat or dog.

As a chicken owner myself, I've heard far too many sad stories of people implulse-buying a chick at a hardware store or livestock show, only for it to perish soon after due to easily-avoided oversights or misunderstandings.

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#96

Post by ethn »

btilly wrote: post #72

One important restriction on mailing is that you CANNOT mail fertile ants through USPS. Which means that all of those ant farms you see being sold to kids? You pay money, and get some sterile workers who are guaranteed to die pretty fast, leaving an unhappy kid. If you want a real ant farm, you need to either collect ants locally, or buy ants in person from someone who did themselves. And you'd better known the rules…

This whole time I thought I did something wrong.

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#97

Post by catillac »

scrps wrote: post #86
pwner39 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that mens rea should generally be present in crimes in order for convictions but eight years for doing what he did is itself insane. Reading up on his background, I wonder if he just snapped and killed the guy out of anger for whatever reason and then started cannibalizing the corpse so that he could play the mental illness card at court.

If someone has an epileptic seizure or a diabetic goes into hypoglycemic shock whilst driving and gets into a head on collision and kills someone should they go to prison? They call it mental illness for a reason.

I’ve known people with epilepsy who were banned from driving due to this possibly. If they had driven and gotten a seizure and killed someone, they would have been driving with a reckless disregard for the safety of others, which is enough of a mens rea to form intention for some level of murder conviction.

It is likely this is largely true, even if not formally banned from driving, so the answer is probably yes to your hypothetical they should go to prison, or pulling the normative phrase out, likely would go to prison (subject to many mitigating factors).

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#98

Post by shapefrog »

FooBarBizBazz wrote: post #81
hnbad wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one am glad that cultural acceptance for these jokes is fading, mostly because young people generally no longer find the sentiment relatable because they're no longer expected to marry the first person they want to sleep with.

I assume it was a mail-order bride joke? Shrug. I can imagine what would drive someone to enter one of those relationships (from either side), but I can't imagine that you'd feel good about it (on either side). It's bad enough dealing with Westerners who seem to be in it for the money. As for our current cultural expectations, I think the idea is supposed to be that you play musical chairs until you hit your mid-to-l…

It's a 'my ex wife is a small, cold blooded but ultimately harmless joke'; 'Other small, harmless, cold-blooded animals' is incredibly vague given the specificity of the other requirements and covers many things.

I obviously dont get young people these days, at the ripe old age of mid 20's I dont really think of myself as old, I am happy to be put in my place by the next generation any day of the week.

Do 'young' people really even think about getting married? If people are to live an extra 10+ years, start professions 2-3 years later, work many jobs more, buy houses 5+ years later, maybe getting married a few years later isnt all that odd?

tbh I did not even think of the mail order bride angle - that would have been much stronger. Do celebrities still do the mail order children thing? Where they pluck some infant out of a refugee camp or warzone and adopt them into the glitz and glamour of hollywood?

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#99

Post by dheera »

kube-system wrote: post #76
dheera wrote: post #17

> Nonpoisonous Insects So it's legal to just, say, mail a bunch of stink bugs and roaches and fruitflies to businesses that send you junk mail or ?

Just because postal regulations permit them to be mailed does not preclude other reasons why that action might be illegal or expose you to legal liability. There are lots of actions that are legal in isolation that become illegal when you do them to other people, particularly when done with malice.

Their spam mail and abuse of customers is malice.

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#100

Post by bonnie76 »

btilly wrote: post #72

One important restriction on mailing is that you CANNOT mail fertile ants through USPS. Which means that all of those ant farms you see being sold to kids? You pay money, and get some sterile workers who are guaranteed to die pretty fast, leaving an unhappy kid. If you want a real ant farm, you need to either collect ants locally, or buy ants in person from someone who did themselves. And you'd better known the rules…

Tell your teenager the world needs more people like him if we’re going to save the worlds insects. We need more entomologist.
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