a strange minhag with the kapparot bird

I have seen and learned about a lot of unusual, and sometimes strange (to me) minhagim over time. I spent several years learning in a yeshiva in an Israeli Haredi neighborhood populated by old Yerushalmim, Hassidim and Litvish people and I saw all sorts of minhagim and behaviors there. This is something I have never seen or heard about, and boy is it strange.

זקן האדמו"רים הרבי ממשכנות הרועים לאחר כפרות במעונו בשריפת הנוצה של התרנגול, כחלק מהמנהג לעשות זכר למיתות בי"ד ע"י זריקת התרנגול, שריפת הנוצה, והרג וחנק - שחיטה pic.twitter.com/7cJSjuq4u7

— משה ויסברג (@moshe_nayes) October 3, 2022

The elder Admor, the Rebbe of Mishkenot HaRo'im, after performing the kapparot ritual in his office - burning the feathers of the chicken, as part of the minhag to perform a "zecher", a symbolic memorial, of the 4 deaths meted out by beis din for various sins on the kapparot bird - by throwing the bird (like skila), burning feathers, strangulation and beheading - both of which are memorialized by the shchita of the bird.

Honestly, this seems cruel, though I dont know if the burning of the feathers is felt by the bird or not, and I dont know how far or hard they throw the bird - throwing the bird to the ground could be a problem of causing a treifa so I assume they arent throwing it form a tall height and nor are they throwing it hard. Good or bad I dont know but it is at minimum strange.

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