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Mailable Live Animals

pe.usps.com

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Re: Mailable Live Animals

#151
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…

Can you ship fertile ants through UPS or Fedex?

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#153

You can also write an address on a fresh coconut, add postage, and mail it, at least from some locations (pretty sure this doesn't work from Floida to California).

I have a memory of posting a slice of bread to someone and by coincidence being at his house when it arrived.

It seems so improbable in retrospect thay I wonder how much I confabulated.

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#154
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Once they've been relegated to the heap of experimentation they really don't need to be controlled that much. Oddly I would feel in some way violated if a loved one of mine had died and his/her head were in that box, but if it happened to my own head I would pay it no mind.

There was a news splash several years ago about a body donation intended for Alzheimer's research which was used for military explosives testing: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-body...

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#155

I once had to go to a mail processing facility in SF to retrieve a package which had had an exception in the delivery process. That was it's own nightmare, but I digress... The postal worker I eventually talked to had a desk in a little office where she seemed to be sorting out issues for people like me. I think my case was a pretty mild one, but she kept getting calls from people about some live chicks which were so…

Luckily for you, USPS can’t go on strike. There’s usually quite a few (non-human) deaths when Canada’s postal workers go on strike.

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#159
post #12

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.

Unfortunately a lot of mailed chicks die along the way, ignoring other aspects of factory farming, it’s a pretty cruel way to transport animals.

Re: Mailable Live Animals

#160
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…

Huh, this is certainly legal in Europe. You get colonies with a queen and some workers, even non-native species. Always asked myself if that wouldn't facilitate invasions of foreign species into the eco system because ants are pretty apt at escaping.
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