Not quite.
They were treated worse than cattle and amongst other things, the women were randomly taken to be raped and god knows what else...
Terminus was originally a haven as depicted on the signs leading to it. The men responsible for those acts were originally welcomed with open arms and then proceeded to take advantage of their kindness/weakness with brutal cruelty.
They figured that in this world, you're either 'the butcher or the cattle' before managing to overthrow them.
It's a bit of a leap from there to cold blooded, organised cannibalism, sure. But you can see why they got to the point where it was a case of **** everyone else and trust no one after what they went through.