@Witchesandwizards
The cat is just an example of their madness.
MIL also annoyed at something partner said so when he was due to arrive at the house she tore up the birthday and Mother's Day cards he had given her for many years and left them in tiny shreds at the bottom of the stairs. Loads of things like that have happened.
Partner tried going no contact before all the siblings all no contact with him and mostly with each other. but she made their lives a misery and pressured them into telling her where he was.
One time he went to pick up something that he remembered was childhood bedroom recently and she started stalking him down the road, probably planning to find out where he was living. He had to square up to her to get her to go away. He has agreed to get the police involved if anything else happens.
The point I am trying to make is sometimes toxic parents and toxic families will do absolutely anything to keep the status quo. They may well do things that appear totally and completely insane to everyone else.
If you think about it your husbands behaviour in loosing his family and upending his previously comfortable life it is just as mad as putting a cat in the fridge. More so any ways as a cat can be thrown away but the damage he has done is much less reversible.
He has convinced himself that his behaviour is sensible and normal just as my partners family have convinced themselves it's normal to preserve cats in formaldehyde.
The more toxic a family is the more insane the behaviour of its members is.