He was kept there as prisoner, not as a killer or torture beast. The guards were being cruel to see if he had been starved long enough to eat a living person. He had never done so at that point. But throwing anyone down there to contend with him seems like it was as much a way to punish him as them.

I dunno, I liked the movie. I thought Ron Howard did some decent damage control to make a fun, non-controversial movie about a character people like. Maybe it was just a relief to see a movie that I didn’t hate like I hated The Last Jedi.