These people really don't think that anything is wrong with this type of behavior...animals are expendable, man has dominion over them, and any type of cruelty or mistreatment is perfectly acceptable.
That attitude persists in many rural areas..."dog don't hunt; sick of feeding the stupid thing"...dog gets shot in the head.
But just keeping a bunch of sickly dogs that nobody would want, when they could be shot, makes no sense either.