The parent company of poultry giant Steggles has launched an investigation into allegations baby chickens were buried alive during the clean-up of a truck rollover near Yass, north of Canberra.

Produce company Baiada said it was "shocked and disturbed" by footage appearing to show live one-day-old chicks being pulled from the dirt and an investigation was underway.

In a statement to the ABC, it said images and videos posted on social media by animal activists Vegan ACT were "completely unacceptable and violate our animal welfare incident management procedures and policies".

About 2:00am on Easter Monday a truck carrying 100,000 live chicks rolled on Burley Griffin Way near Yass.

Yass Valley Council, which has denied knowingly burying live chickens, was responsible for the clean-up.

The council said its employees worked for more than 15 hours to save 80,000 animals, while the dead chickens were buried.

But in a Facebook post Vegan ACT claimed live chicks were buried in the clean-up effort, alongside those that had been killed.

An unverified video attached to post appears to show people pulling live chicks from the dirt.

Vegan ACT claims to have found more than 100 live chicks. ( Facebook: Vegan ACT )

Activist Michelle Swann told ABC Radio Canberra she arrived at the scene some 14 hours after the crash — something authorities on the scene dispute.

"Before we could see anything, we could hear lots and lots of chirping so it was clear immediately that there were lots of birds that had survived," she said.

"There was just cheeping coming out of [a dirt pile] all day. We were there until about 10:00pm or about six hours.

"We started just digging them out by hand, trying to locate where they were calling from, there were just thousands of bodies everywhere."

Ms Swann said the group retrieved 140 live chicks from the dirt.

She accused the Yass Valley Council of "cruelty towards day-old chicks" but admitted the group had not contacted animal welfare groups or police. Though she said the group was considering further action.

Yass Valley Council Mayor Rowena Abbey said she was "surprised" by allegations from Vegan ACT that council workers had knowingly buried the animals and labelled them "ridiculous".

"They were all over the road, on the side of the road and [council staff] actually spent more than 15 hours picking up 80,000 chickens which is no mean effort," she said.

"So to suggest that they buried them alive, I think is an extraordinary accusation.

"This is a day where they've got a day off and they've been called to an emergency and they've put a 15-hour day in to assist with police to ensure other road users weren't distracted by trying to avoid chickens on the road."