My initial reaction was that she did it in front of the kids. My dad used to complain that on the farm it was his job to drown the kittens and puppies. I’m not sure that was true. He grew up to be a very kind and loving person. But I guess on a subsistence farm with five kids, it was the only way to deal with it. I’m sure by then (1920s) they knew how to neuter cattle and horses but didn’t bother with dogs and who could find a cat’s balls anyway?
“My dad used to complain that on the farm it was his job to drown the kittens and puppies. I’m not sure that was true.”
I rented a cottage on a farm back in the 80’s. The cat would have a “litter” of one kitten. I said to the owner that was weird. “Yeah - my daughter lived most of her life thinking all cats just had one kitten. The rest go in a bag into the pond.”
On a farm one is doing all sorts of killing. I’m guessing a cat is viewed as something to keep the rodents down - not a pet. And you don’t need tons of cats for that.
I was surprised one time visiting a relative on a ranch. The cattle dog was amazing - herding cattle with just three legs - the other all mangled.
“What happened to the dog?”
“Stupid dog didn’t get out of the way of the cow”
“The vet couldn’t save it - Huh?”
“What vet?”
Such an important tool (the dog) on the ranch I would have thought they would have taken better care of it.
Of course neither of those is anything like killing them because your kids didn’t clean their room.