万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-04-08&09, 彩色小鸡被没收了

I thought it was kind of funny that the chicken police came in and seized the shipment.

It was actually the SPCA, who confiscated¹ the colorful chicks at the Johnston Post Office Friday morning.

They come from Texas from a poultry² farm in Texas, delivered to the Johnston Post Office. A person that owns a pet store in Johnston ordered them.

We were gonna order some chicks for the kids and to replenish³ our stock, and we chose to go with the colored ones that look cute.

So you ordered the chicks for personal use, not to sell from the store?

Yeah. You know, You don't make poultry in exotic. It doesn't work out.

But what Pure Paradise Pets store owner Domenic Parisella claims he didn't know was that Rhode Island law prohibits anyone from possessing dyed poultry.

I had no idea that there was a ban on dyed chickens. Had I’d known, I would stay away from it.

But Parisella said he had no reason to think there will be any problems since neither the dyeing process nor the dye is harmful to the chicks.

It's a full grain dye. That's not gonna hurt. It doesn't, even if it goes in eyes or mouth, whatever. It's no different than the food coloring that you get on your average birthday cake.

But it's enough to detour⁴ the 48 chicks, and leave everyone wondering: what will happen next?

Right now I am in the darkness to what's going to happen to them.

If they find their way back to me, that will be great 'cause I got probably about 8 little kids that are looking forward to having some multi-colored chickens that they won’t have. But, you know, it is what it is.

SPCA: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

1 confiscated   

没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their land was confiscated after the war. 他们的土地在战后被没收。
• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。

2 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

3 replenish   

vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满

参考例句：

• I always replenish my food supply before it is depleted.我总是在我的食物吃完之前加以补充。
• We have to import an extra 4 million tons of wheat to replenish our reserves.我们不得不额外进口四百万吨小麦以补充我们的储备。

4 detour   

n.绕行的路，迂回路；v.迂回，绕道

参考例句：

• We made a detour to avoid the heavy traffic.我们绕道走，避开繁忙的交通。
• He did not take the direct route to his home,but made a detour around the outskirts of the city.他没有直接回家，而是绕到市郊兜了个圈子。