MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Criminal charges will not be filed against workers who allegedly tortured chickens at a West Virginia processing plant, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Ginny Conley, acting executive director of the West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Institute and Wood County's prosecutor, had struggled to find a lawyer willing to serve as special prosecutor in the case against former employees of the Pilgrim's Pride Corp. plant in Moorefield.

"After reviewing the evidence and conferring with other prosecutors, I've made the decision the incident does not rise to the level of a criminal prosecution due to the fact that these were chickens in a slaughterhouse," she said.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals quickly condemned the decision and vowed to keep fighting.

In July, PETA released secretly recorded video of workers stomping, kicking and slamming chickens against walls at the Moorefield plant. Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride fired 11 employees, re-educated its work force at all 24 North American plants and added quality assurance monitors on both shifts in Moorefield.

Pilgrim's Pride is among the largest poultry producers in the United States and Mexico, and is a major supplier to KFC, which PETA has targeted in an ongoing animal cruelty campaign.