Animal rights agitators stormed a Florida Chick-fil-A for the restaurant’s Cow Appreciation Day Tuesday, and staged a bloody protest that left many small children traumatized.

“They came in slicing each other’s throats, putting each other on their knees, dropping them onto the floor in front of a bunch of children,” patron Crystal Valle-Najar told WFLA.

Videos of the protest posted online show several animal rights crusaders dressed as cows and chickens, and another dressed as butcher with a large fake knife, as they staged a bloody slaughter in front of children screaming in horror.

According to the Tampa Bay Times:

“Animal killers,” screamed more than a dozen protesters on a video posted to Facebook. In the background, children started crying and screaming.

“I got kids here,” one woman said as she begged the protesters to stop. “You’re scaring kids.”

Some protestors wearing chicken and horse masks laid on the tile floors, while others pretended to stab them with bloody knives. Others lofted signs and repeatedly chanted:

“It’s not food. It’s violence.”

Tina Leacock, who posted one of YouTube videos, described the scene at the Pinellas Park establishment as it was besieged by the group, known as Direct Action Everywhere Pinellas.

“Here are the unwelcome guests, thankfully I had all the children locked in the play area so they couldn’t see or hear what was going on!” she wrote. “I’m all for everyone having their own opinion, but when you come into a place full of children, with a knife in hand and proceed to cut the throats of a person dressed up as a chicken and a cow, all to get a point across, that’s going too far!

“Mind you the knife was face the throats of the persons dressed up were protesters. But there were young children who saw everything happen and couldn’t tell the difference between it being real or fake,” she continued. “If you have a strong opinion on something by all means you have the right to speak on it in a reasonable manner, but shame on you for your actions today!”

Other videos showed store employees, parents and other patrons confronting the protestors and urging them to leave immediately. The protesters eventually complied after store officials called the police.

“People running in with knives, bleeding. Like bleeding on their shirts and just bloody knives,” Nichole Kretchmar told WFLA. “It scared the kids.”

Kayla Leaming, a spokesperson for Direct Action Everywhere Pinellas, described the staged slaughter as a success for veganism.

“People might be upset, but I think that putting it out on the table and showing people, like this is the reality of where the animals ace coming from and how bad the animals are suffering,” she said.