Northwest Airlines was supposed to stop accepting baby chicks for air-shipment on Wednesday, but airline officials decided to push back the deadline a few weeks. Murray McMurray, co-owner of McMurray Hatchery in Webster City, is encouraged by the move, which he credits to pressure put on by people calling and expressing concern.The deadline was moved from August fifteenth to September first, which McMurray says at least buys two weeks of time, and perhaps much more. He says they’re not sure what the new guidelines for shipping live animals will be. McMurray says the hatchery mailed one-point-seven million chicks to 32-thousand customers this year, including small family farmers, zoos, 4-H members and even decorating maven Martha Stewart. He says Stewart’s representatives said they weren’t sure there was anything she could do to help the situation. The website address is “www.mcmurrayhatchery.com”.
