Okay, I missed this the first time around. I'm conflicted. He got time for "killing or torturing an animal" - did he torture the kitten and I missed that? If he just fed the snake, then objectively what is the difference between feeding the snake a kitten or a baby bunny?
Now, don't come for me. I love cats. We have two very spoiled cats. We've always had cats. Cats are awesome.
There is also an unhealthy overabundance of feral cats. These feral cats wipe out whole species (see Australia's songbirds). "But Elm, we're not in Australia!" I know, but such things could, would, and have happened in the US, it's just that we have a heck of a lot more land and aren't isolated by oceans. Feral cats also spread diseases like Feline HIV through populations, which then infect people's indoor-outdoor pets. The world could use fewer feral cats and more responsible pet owners who spay and neuter.
My grandparents raised/owned the largest boa constrictor in captivity in North America (there may have been larger since her, but in the 80s she was IT). My Poppy also had a heart condition that required he eat "lean meat," and at that time it meant "wild meat" - think venison, rabbit, and squirrel. So grandparents raised rabbits, rats, and mice for the snakes. I didn't grow up seeing rabbits, rats, and mice as pets, though they are all popular pets. There was a lab nearby that also sold their "overstock" to my grandparents for snake chow, but specifically NOT human consumption.
Guinea pigs were another matter. Poppy once bought a whole crate of guinea pigs at a livestock auction, and I cried. I and all my cousins ended up with pet guinea pigs! Snakes got 0.
And he never, ever, would have fed the snakes a kitten. You don't feed your snakes predators that could cause them serious injury. Cats have claws and teeth that can tear up a snake BAD. Heck, we had to stun the feed animals (and it was terrible) so they wouldn't scratch or bite. If the snake wasn't in the mood to hunt, the feed would recover, and then we'd have to retrieve it from the enclosure, which was a whole other mess.
Some pets eat other animals. With dogs and cats, we sanitize it by turning those other animals into kibble (but we all know cats will hunt, kill, and eat critters anyway, no matter how much kibble they have). Snakes don't do kibble. They have to have their critters fresh and warm (for the most part, some rare ones will eat thawed). They're not domesticated. They're wild animals we keep in cages to admire and feel badass because we're the bigger predator. They don't love us - they don't have the capacity, unlike cats and dogs.
And all this to say: if all he did was feed the snake, it was stupid because a kitten could have hurt the snake, but it's really no different, morally, than a rabbit.