http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5540786/

July 28 - MOOREFIELD, WV- There are some ruffled feathers in the Four State area Wednesday, as members of the animal rights group PETA work to put those accused of stomping, throwing and kicking live chickens behind bars.

It comes just as the state of West Virginia holds its annual poultry festival.Is PETA trying to disrupt the party?

At the West Virginia Poultry Festival in Moorefield, everybody's talking chicken.There's celebration of one of the area's biggest exports and discussion of one of its biggest embarrassments, the graphic video recorded and released by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).In the video, workers are shown stomping, kicking and throwing live chickens at a wall.

Festival attendee and former Pilgrim's Pride employee Robert Class said people shouldn't feel sorry for the chickens.Instead, they should feel sorry for the 11 fired employees."It's not fair for people to get unjustly fired after working at a place for 22 years with no reprimand or nothin'," said Class.

PETA members said firing employees should be just the start to change what they call a "culture of abuse.""Both Pilgrim's Pride and KFC need to institute company-wide animal welfare policies that will set in stone what the company's position is," said Dan Shannon with PETA.

"They have a process of killing them that way.The proper way to kill them is to break their neck or slam them down.They were taught that in years gone by and nobody's ever told them any different," said Class.

Folks at the festival are hearing different things.Some attendees are anticipating a PETA protest at Friday's parade."We didn't feel a protest or a presence at the festival would help us with our goals.We thought it would be divisive so we're not going to pursue that," said Shannon.

Instead, PETA will focus its efforts on ensuring the workers in the video face state animal cruelty charges and changing the animal treatment policies at Pilgrim's Pride and KFC.

A Moorefield district attorney has opened a criminal investigation.PETA representatives said they expect those fired to receive felony charges.