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.

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— ×ž×Š×” ×•×™×Ą×‘×¨×’ (@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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