Australia Post apologises after child’s heartbreaking discovery in the mail

“My son is pretty sensitive, and he was really excited about the parcel coming. He was distressed and felt like it was his fault,” said Byron Bay mum Rebecca.

A young boy has had his heart broken by Australia Post after his parcel was dead on arrival - literally. 

Quinn, a 16-year-old animal enthusiast, purchased a small colony of bees and had them delivered to his Byron Bay home. 

Inside the Express Post satchel was a queen bee and its nurse bees, but soon after Australia Post received his parcel, they misplaced it for 10 days. 

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Quinn opened the parcel to find the bees dead on arrival. Picture: Yahoo News

“They just slowly died in the mail”

Along the way, the bees were exposed to temperatures above 30 degrees in those 10 days, giving them little room for survival. 

So when the parcel finally arrived days later, Quinn was heartbroken to see the bees had all died. 

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“It was devastating… I really care about my bees, and the last thing I want to do is harm or kill them,” Quinn told Yahoo News. 

Quinn’s mother, Rebecca, recalled the devastating effect the dead bees had on her son. 

“My son is pretty sensitive, and he was really excited about the queen bee coming,” she said. “He was distressed and felt like her dying was his fault.”

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Outside the satchel was a large sticker signalling the live bees inside and to handle the parcel with care. “No sun, no sprays,” it read on the side. 

However, by the time the Express Post arrived at the teen’s house, “they were crispy and in this tiny container, the queen bee and her nurses”. 

“I was just like, Oh my god, this is heartbreaking,” said mum Rebecca. “They just slowly died in the mail.” 

Rebecca reached out to Australia Post regarding the treatment of her son’s bees, only to receive little compassion in return; she described their behaviour as “aggressive” and argued they were being “defensive” over the lost bees. 

Following the poor response from Australia Post, Rebecca reached out to Emma Hurst of the Animal Justice party, who brought attention to the story in the NSW Parliament to help change the method of transportation of live animals. 

Australia Post has since apologised for the incident. “We take the utmost care with deliveries of this nature and have sincerely apologised to the customer,” a spokesperson for Australia Post told the outlet. 

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The 16yo was devastated by the outcome. PIcture: Yahoo News

“There are mistakes from time to time”

While the transportation of most wild animals is banned by Australia Post, there are a few exceptions, including live bees. 

In fact, hundreds of thousands of bees are transported via Australia Post every year, according to the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council. 

However, Emma Hurst of the Animal Justice Party told NSW Parliament that the “packages containing these live animals are treated the same as regular mail”. 

“[The animals] are subject to rough and unpredictable handling in packages that could easily be crushed, lacks air, light, food and water,” she said. 

Danny Le Feuvre, the CEO of the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, said they were in “regular dialogue” about the transportation of bees via Australia Post, but there are plenty of “issues” they need to iron out. 

“We've got a queen breeding association and they’ve been doing things like putting temperature tags in consignments to monitor the temperature in transit to see what we can do to improve,” he said. 

“But it is a very large system that they're operating, and there are mistakes from time to time.” 

According to Emma Hurst, it’s time the postal company changed its methods for transporting animals.

“Why on earth Australia Post thinks it’s acceptable to allow live animals such as bees to be sent through the post is beyond me,” she told Yahoo News. “Animal welfare is being ignored and it is absolutely unacceptable.” 

Originally published as Australia Post apologises after child’s heartbreaking discovery in the mail