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Postal Service says it’s sorry after 6 canaries sent by mail arrive dead

U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Jamesa Euler turns down the flag on a mailbox while delivering mail in the Cabbagetown area of Atlanta. The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail to 11 million more homes, offices and other addresses than it did a decade ago, even as the amount of mail that people in the United States receive has dropped sharply. That combination may be financially dicey, some analysts say. The Postal Service has abandoned plans to drop Saturday deliveries to save money after pressure from Congress. U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Jamesa Euler turns down the flag on a mailbox while delivering mail in the Cabbagetown area of Atlanta. The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail to 11 million more homes, offices and other addresses than it did a decade ago, even as the amount of mail that people in the United States receive has dropped sharply. That combination may be financially dicey, some analysts say. The Postal Service has abandoned plans to drop Saturday deliveries to save money after pressure from Congress.

By Associated Press December 28, 2016 1 min read

GRANT, Ala. (AP) — U.S. Postal Service officials say they’ve apologized to an Alabama woman who says her package of six live canaries arrived, but the birds were crushed and dead.

Rhonda King told Al.com (http://bit.ly/2hobXMH ) that the box containing the birds was marked with tire tracks when it arrived from Texas earlier this month. King said the birds were in an approved box designed to let them breathe.

But when it was delivered to King’s hair salon in the northeast Alabama city of Grant, King said the postmaster told her, “well, your birds arrived, but they’re not alive.”

Postal Service spokeswoman Debra Fetterly said in a later statement to The Associated Press that local managers offered an apology and would work to find “a solution the customer finds acceptable.”