Is Selling a Dyed Easter Chick Illegal in Massachusetts?
The pastel Easter chick is illegal to sell in Massachusetts, and the statute is more specific than the folklore. M.G.L. c. 272, sec. 80D says no person shall sell, offer for sale, barter, display or give away living rabbits, chickens, ducklings or other fowl which have been dyed, colored or otherwise treated so as to impart an artificial color. The penalty is a fine of not more than $100.
The prohibition is on the transaction and the display
Read the verbs, because they are the whole rule: sell, offer for sale, barter, display, give away. The section is built around moving the animal or putting it out where people can see it. That is a narrower thing than a ban on the dye itself, and it is why a pet store window is squarely inside the sentence.
There is a second prohibition in the same section
Before it gets to color, section 80D says no person shall sell, offer for sale, barter or give away as premiums living baby chickens, ducklings or other fowl under two months of age. Age and color are two separate tests, and an animal can fail either one.
The twenty-four duckling rule
The oddest line in the section is the quantity floor. Prior to May first in any year, ducklings may be sold or purchased only in quantities of twenty-four or more. It sits in the paragraph that carves out breeders and stores selling for commercial breeding and raising, which is the context the number lives in.
Two exceptions are written in
Breeders and stores engaged in the business of selling for purposes of commercial breeding and raising are carved out, and so is the sale or donation of chickens, ducklings or fowl to schools for use in classroom instruction. Those are in the text, not read into it.
What this page is not
This page describes what section 80D says. It does not say how the section is enforced, whether a particular seller falls inside an exception, or how a court would treat a given set of facts. Read the section yourself at the link above, and telephone the firm about a real situation.
Full transcript of this video
Cold open: A pink dyed chick is lifted out of an Easter basket while a white rabbit sits behind it. On screen: Selling this chick = a crime in Mass.
Jim Glaser: Selling a dyed Easter chick is a crime in Massachusetts. Pink, blue, any color. Real statute. Chapter 272, Section 80D.
Jim Glaser: A $100 fine for dyeing a baby animal. Look up the statute yourself.
On screen: Send this to your friend who dyes chicks every Easter.
The actual law
M.G.L. c.272 s.80D (Living rabbits, baby chickens, ducklings or other fowl; sale, barter or gift) on malegislature.gov
Two separate prohibitions sit in this one section. The first is about age: no person shall sell, offer for sale, barter or give away as premiums living baby chickens, ducklings or other fowl under two months of age. The second is about color, and it is the sentence quoted below. The section then adds a quantity rule: prior to May first in any year, ducklings may be sold or purchased only in quantities of twenty-four or more. Breeders and stores selling for commercial breeding and raising are carved out, and so is the sale or donation of the animals to schools for classroom instruction.
No person shall sell, offer for sale, barter, display or give away living rabbits, chickens, ducklings or other fowl which have been dyed, colored or otherwise treated so as to impart to them an artificial color.
Penalty as written: A fine of not more than $100.
Common questions
Does the section ban dyeing the animal, or selling it?
The words reach the transaction and the display. No person shall sell, offer for sale, barter, display or give away a living rabbit, chicken, duckling or other fowl which has been dyed, colored or otherwise treated so as to impart an artificial color. The verbs in that sentence are what the section prohibits.
Does the color matter?
No. The test is whether the animal was dyed, colored or otherwise treated so as to impart an artificial color, not which color was used.
What is the twenty-four duckling rule?
The section says that prior to May first in any year, ducklings may be sold or purchased only in quantities of twenty-four or more. It is written into the paragraph that carves out breeders and stores selling for commercial breeding and raising.
Are there exceptions?
Two are written into the section. It does not prohibit the sale or display of baby chickens, ducklings or other fowl under two months of age by breeders or stores engaged in the business of selling for purposes of commercial breeding and raising, and it does not prohibit the sale or donation of such animals to schools for use in classroom instruction.
What is the penalty under M.G.L. c. 272, sec. 80D?
A fine of not more than one hundred dollars. The section does not attach a jail term to the conduct it describes.
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This video and the text on this page are general legal information, not legal advice, and do not create an attorney-client relationship. Massachusetts law is fact-specific; telephone Jim Glaser Law about your particular situation. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Attorney advertising under Mass. R. Prof. C. 7.1 to 7.5. Responsible attorney: Jim Glaser, admitted in MA only, of counsel to Keches Law. Principal office: 77 Pond St., Sharon, MA. Most cases referred to other jurisdictionally licensed lawyers for principal liability. This video uses an AI-generated likeness and voice of Attorney Jim Glaser, with his permission.