Per Christina Websell:
They probably did. Cats like to hunt and if you don't like it, don't have a
cat. Simples ;-)
My cat is brilliant around my chicken huts (small rats killed only, the big
ones he says no to) If you have poultry you will always get rats coming to
share their food.

My maybe a dozen cats. "Maybe" because she divides them into two groups
"House Cats" that come-and-go from the house and "Barn Cats" which are
semi-wild things that live in the barn and feed on rodents.

Try to touch one of the barn cats and you'll need medical attention.

I saw another documentary called "The Cat Connection" (BBC... might have
been the same one where they described the study...) in which they
described cats - in terms of evolutionary perfection as hunters - as the
dry-land analog of great white sharks.

Guy I worked with had a "Maine Coon" cat - which are even more
compulsive hunters than most.

One day it brought home a live pheasant. He took the pheasant from the
cat, threw it up into the air, and the thing started flying away.... not
like a duck's very steep takeoff... more a gradual increase in altitude
as it crossed the yard. When it was about halfway across the yard, the
cat took off after it, leapt into the air, and dragged it down...
--
Pete Cresswell