Teaching your children

I read the most horrifying story in the St. Pete Times this morning. I know abuse of animals goes on every single day here, but to be charged with abuse and then charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor means she was showing or teaching her children how to be cruel. How can you do that? How can you knowingly abuse an animal and then show your children how to abuse one?
This is a disturbing story.