I didn’t catch that he doused it in oil. The way he described it, they were tossing the cat back and forth over the bonfire. Cats don’t like that and probably struggled at the wrong moment, dropping the cat in the fire. Still beyond shitty, but it changes the motive.

Edit: dug a little deeper, and the only confirming source that says he doused the cat with gasoline is hollywoodlife.com. Seems flimsy