Our Collie gave birth to it's first litter of six this week, and the missus was very pleased, pictures were sent and lots of cooing and mooning occured over the aborable little bundles.
However, about 4 hours later the wife left mother and pups (feeding happily) to gather a few things, when she and my daughter came back 25mins later, the scene was horrific at best, Mum had eaten two of the pups completely, chewed the back legs off another and half of the head of one more. The two remaining live pups had some small puncture wounds and were OK for a while, but after a while both just faded away and died, probably delayed shock.
I rushed back to help as best I could, but after clearing up the mess (so much blood!) and trying to help the last two there was very little to be done. But I can't get my head around why it happened, I know that even "domestic" dogs are still wild animals to a degree, but what purpose did that serve? I know that humans occasionally dump newborns in post-natal depression/shock, but euugghh.
Probably more scaring than sharing, but I can't stop thinking about it.
TR