It was like the fifties. Again, people don't care about animals then and in some places like they do now.
Farmers will drown kittens and dogs to keep them from becoming a nuisance (otherwise they breed and just become oversized vermin). Its just the way it is in some places.
Still, I personally wouldn't let them carry out their freak experiments. "Let's throw a cat in a glass oven, lolz"