Cruel or not?

I don't think he is cruel at all, as long as the animals were suffering, then he is a hero for ending that suffering. When I was in high school, we had a kitten that we had found one time that we took in who got very sick. We couldn't afford to go to the vet (single parent, two kids), so we took the best possible care of the kitten we could. The kitten kept getting worse and worse, and after about 2 weeks, she couldn't even stand up. I cupped her tiny little head in my hand and helped her stop breathing so she could stop suffering. I was literally bawling right after that, but my friend who was there with me helped me get through it. This is not something I'm proud of having done, but it was the right thing to do, given the cirstances.