CAMDEN, Delaware — A Delaware animal shelter is trying to care for and resettle thousands of chicks that survived being left in a postal service truck for three days. Trapped in a warm enclosure, without food and water, thousands died before they were discovered.

Involved parties are awaiting answers as to how 12,000 chicks were abandoned within the truck at a Delaware mail distribution center. The United States Postal Service said in an email that it was aware of a process breakdown and was investigating what occurred.

Pennsylvania-based Freedom Ranger Hatchery raised the chicks for their weekly distribution to clients across the country, said a spokesperson for the company. Due to biosecurity concerns, the hatchery cannot take the chicks back.

The spokesperson said it would have been best if USPS, after discovering the chicks, had completed delivery as the recipients could have better handled the birds — even malnourished ones.

For more than two weeks, the surviving chicks have been nursed and cared for at First State Animal Center and SPCA, said John Parana, executive director. A few hundred of the chicks have been adopted, but there is no complete count of the chicks, as the shelter has no feasible way to do so, but Parana estimates there to be more than 2,000 available.

Money remains the biggest concern for the donation-reliant nonprofit. Some employees have begun spending their money to support the operations, he said.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture, after a call from USPS, directed the animals to the shelter, which shares a memorandum of understanding with the animal center as a state vendor. The department said it is responsible for assisting the shelter with funds — for chickens, the rate was $5 each per day.

Jimmy Kroon, the department’s chief of planning, said negotiations were ongoing, but Parana claims that the department communicated that they had no funds to allocate for the chicks.