If you read how he was killing them, and can’t see that as animal cruelty and getting off on their reaction to deliberate pain, I feel for ya.
Do you know how he was killing them or how the neighbor said he was killing them?
If what the neighbor described is accurate, yeah...it was cruel. Look, this guy may be the biggest psycho out there, and while I can't think of a good reason to eat a cat right now, I have a job and food in my 'fridge. During the Depression, the stories are legion of people eating rats, pigeons, and other unconventional food stuffs. For all we know, this guy may be a bellwether of things to come for us all. For that matter, he may have been trying to reenact the opening scenes of, "The Book Of Eli."
Certainly this guy's behavior deviates from conventional behavioral norms, and calling the cops was the right thing to do, but at this point, I'm not quite ready to call him the next Ted Bundy or Geoffrey Dahmer.