“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.
We have a three legged asthmatic dachshund. A mini. We cannot keep up with him. Crazy dog.
Or killing them and then putting them in the freezer where the kids would find it.