I have 3 cats, adopted straight from the streets of Yerushalayim where we found them as sick small cats (one of them was almost dead). I have heard and witnessed examples of cruelty against animals one does not want to imagine.
One of our cats, for example, was caught by kids from a local yeshiva who put him in an oven and were just turning it on when an adult spotted it and freed the cat. That was a week before we took him into our house. These were very ‘neat’ 14/15-year old yeshiva bochurim from a very mainstream respected Ashkenazi yeshiva. They were having a lot of fun about it when they were caught.
And yes it is indeed quite funny – some of the older daughters of our neighbors would be completely terrified on seeing a friendly small smiling cat.
When we left E”Y we took the cats with us, obviously. Here in Gateshead there are more frum people who have pets (some cats, even dogs and also a snake somewhere).