That's awful. I feel so bad for them. If my family did that I wouldn't allow it, I do whatever was in my power to save them and if I couldn't do anything I'd have nothing to do with my family.
Once when we were at the grocery store we found a lobster on the floor (I say it was a crayfish though because it was tiny but Im not sure if they sold live crayfish so I dunno). We were begging our mom to buy it or help us sneak it out of the store and then my sister picked it up angryily and threw it on the floor (she lied and said it pinched her and she accidently dropped it when we all saw it didn't). It foamed from the mouth and died the next morning.
It was going to be my pet.. I thought I had saved it's life and that I was meant to find the little guy.