Have you ever encountered the weird situation when a pet eats a pet? This is a random occurrence. A carnivorous pet engages with skirmishes or aggressive play with a duck. The next moment, a slight injury on the duck prompts the carnivore to 'smell the coffee'. The rest is history. The tragedy is that you can only detain such pets because they now pose a danger to other pets. How do you handle such cases?
I guess you'd see a lot of it if you have an aquarium full of pet fish. While it is not normal for fish of similar size to eat each other, they do attack each other sometimes out of territorial behavior or simply being nippy. The injured fish are more likely getting attacked and eventually die. Some fish will chew on other dead fish. More often it is the big fish eat small fish fry when some fish in the same aquarium had given birth. It is one way to keep population in control as it has been the same way in the wild.
It is usually no big deal since we as pet owners should already have advanced knowledge about what might happen if we mix up the wrong species. So it usually won't happen unless we took the unnecessary risk.
However, if a dog eats a cat, or vice versa, I'd totally freak out.
I haven't ever had that happening to me but one of my friends had to witness her cat kill her fish. It's a big cliche but it's just because of her own carelessness. She accidentally left open the top part of her aquarium, and somehow her cat climbed on top of the whole aquarium without her noticing that. One thing led to another and before she could even realise, one of her goldfishes was gone. Even when my friend does love her animals, for her it's more of a laughable thing nowadays. She knows she should've been more careful with the lid on top but at least she now knows to check twice not to leave it open.
This is something that owners of pets should be aware of then they get pets of different species. Some anmals will get along fine with a creature that is usually considered food for them; but most often , that does not happen.
There are many cute videos on youtube and Facebook that show a beautiful parakeet climbing all over a cat, and the cat seems to like the bird; but more often, the cat is only waiting for an opportunity to catch the bird and make a meal of it then to become friends.
You cannot blame an animal for killing and maybe eating an animal that is normally food for that animal. The owner has to make sure that the small animal is protected from the one who wants to eat it.
Some dogs can be trained not to chase and kill smaller animals; but even then, the owner should always watch and make sure that the smaller animal is safe.
Many years ago, we lived out on a small farm and had a milk goat, as well as two large dogs. The dogs never once chased the goats or even barked at them; but one night we came home from a late trip into town and found that the dogs had chased the poor goat out into the deep snow and then killed it.
I have no idea why those dogs killed the goat, since they had always been fine together the whole time.
So, even when we think we know what an animal will or won't do, it is always best not to take chances.
I'd be very upset if this happens but why would an owner put a dangerously larger pet where it can reach another that's particularly more vulnerable? Whenever I see videos of birds and cats being close to one another, this makes me nervous, especially if the birds are parrots and cockatoos. I know it may seem adorable if a bird starts playing with the cat that looks like it doesn't want to be bothered but one has to consider the risk here. Larger animals were known to have turned on to their owners or caretakers and end up killing them. I would not be surprised if a pet kills another pet.
Cats are obligate carnivores and natural predators, so it is in the nature of a cat to kill a bird or a mouse, and expecting otherwise simply confuses the cat. Cats haven't been domesticated for as many generations as dogs have. Sure, they have lived with people for a long time but until recent years, cats were valued for their skills as predators, and kept in order to reduce mouse populations. Even in my childhood, I grew up on a farm in Michigan, and I was the only one in the family who viewed the cats as pets. Oh, every finds kittens to be cute but no one else in the family would spend much time petting the cats, talking to them, or bringing them treats. They had a job to do.
Of course, cats are individuals and some of them are less likely to kill than others. My two older cats have never been hunters. I don't recall Cutie ever once even attempting to catch a bird or a rodent, and this included a couple of times when there was a mouse in the house. She would look at it and turn away, as if to say, "It's just a mouse. He won't eat much." Her sister, Lydia, caught a bird outdoors once, held her paws over it for a while and then released it to fly away, apparently believing in catch and release policies.
Ella, on the other hand, is a skilled predator. She has brought me mice, voles, and birds, usually quite dead. She doesn't even play with them. However, one day we had a mouse in the house, and she had been stalking it. Then, there was Ella at the bottom of the steps, while the mouse was on the first step. I couldn't understand how Ella could not know that it was there since it was very near her. Then she reached up and rubbed her head on the mouse, as if to indicate that this mouse was her friend. Later, she let the mouse walk away. But about a week later, there she was at the back door with a dead mouse. I hate it when she kills things but she is being a cat and it would be confusing for her to be reprimanding for doing what cats do.
So yes, if you are going to keep both predators and prey as pets, you need to make sure that are kept safe, and it is unreasonable to expect that predator to understand that the prey is family. Yeah, it does seem to happen, but I wouldn't depend on it. Many years ago, I had a cat and a parakeet. The parakeet was kept in a cage hanging from the ceiling, and not near any furniture that would allow the cat to have access to it. I had both the cat and the parakeet for a couple of years, and the cat didn't seem particularly interested in the bird. But one day, I came home from work to find that the cat had somehow managed to knock the cage onto the floor, and there were pieces of the parakeet strewn throughout the house.
Oh, this is an unpleasant thread that we have to deal with. Fortunately, I have not experienced it yet. But my husband had a sad story when he was a teenager. He was tending a rooster that he used for playing cockfighting with his friends. He keeps the rooster in a makeshift wooden cage. When his uncle gave them an adult german shepherd dog, it did not occur to him that a dog and a rooster do not mix.
After some weeks, the rooster in the cage and the dog in a leash, the dog was able to get loose. When my husband heard the sound of the rooster which was in the frontyard, he rushed to see that the dog was holding the dead rooster in its mouth. I'm sorry if I cannot continue with the story but I guess you all know the conclusion.
While it is not normal for fish of similar size to eat each other, they do attack each other sometimes out of territorial behavior or simply being nippy. The injured fish are more likely getting attacked and eventually die. Some fish will chew on other dead fish. More often it is the big fish eat small fish fry when some fish in the same aquarium had given birth. It is one way to keep population in control as it has been the same way in the wild. 