I am sending this along of great interest to those homesteaders who get chicks via the mail. Please read:

Dear Friends and Customers of Murray McMurray Hatchery, WE NEED YOUR HELP! The United States Post Office is the only service in the United States, which will carry day old poultry. UPS, Federal Express, Airborne Express, and every other carrier in the US will not carry poultry. As all of you who have bought live day-old poultry from us know, we ship your order for baby chicks, ducklings, goslings, etc. to you via the airlines. We are able to do this because all airlines have a very lucrative contract with the United States Post Office to carry mail. Murray McMurray Hatchery is located a short distance from Minneapolis, Minnesota which happens to be the hub for Northwest Airlines, the airline which carries nearly 100% of our baby chicks.

We were just notified that as of August 15, 2001 Northwest has decided to join a long list of other airlines, which refuse to carry day-old poultry as United States Mail. (In the past the post office has allowed the airlines to pick and choose which type of US Mail they wish to carry.) This decision by Northwest Airlines will probably force the few remaining airlines that do carry poultry to follow suit. The end result of these actions is there will no longer be a way to purchase poultry through the mail because no airlines will carry your order. Unless this can be resolved Murray McMurray Hatchery and most other mail order hatcheries will more than likely go out of business.

We are begging for your support and help on this issue. Click on the link below to bring up a letter to your congressional representatives we would very much like to have you forward. WE MUST make them aware of this very crucial problem. We are very worried here at McMurray Hatchery that mail order poultry, like so many other great things of our rich heritage, may become a thing of the past. This issue does not only affect hatcheries. Every feed store, 4-H Club, poultry equipment manufacturer, pharmaceutical company, school science project,and any other individual or company which has a finger in raising poultry on the small scale will be hurt.

Please lend us your assistance on this issue. Thank you.

Murray McMurray and Mike Lubbers, Owners Murray McMurray Hatchery, Inc.

Go to the Take Action Page to see what you can do. Take action now to save mail order shipping of poultry. For more information call 1-800-456-3280 and ask for information on the action alert.

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), August 03, 2001

Answers

This is serious! Go to the site and they'll show you what to do. Here is the website for Murray McMurray: www.mcmurrayhatchery.com

-- Mike D. (mddock123@yahoo.com), August 03, 2001.

Sorry folks to repeat this. I inadvertantly missed the earlierpost of August 2. Oooops! Kate

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), August 03, 2001.

Kate, thanks for posting it again! I missed it the first time, too. I was glad to be able to write my congressman about it. Maybe something will be done.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), August 03, 2001.

Also call NorthWest arilines and let them know how you feel.

even to the point of letting them know that you won't use them and tell your friends to boycott them as well.

The boycott word is a strong motivator.

-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), August 04, 2001.

what web site should i go to??? can't seem to find it. thanks john

-- john moore (meadowmoorefarms@yahoo.com), August 07, 2001.

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/ This provides a direct link to their action page. To e-mail Northwest Airlines: http://www.nwa.com/cgi-bin/gen_cargo.pl Hope this helps. Please let others know what is going on.

-- Tracey Burnash (burnash@gisco.net), August 07, 2001.