<<Even cats and dogs do appalling things sometimes, including ganging up on and killing a pack member, or killing and eating their young. And these are often otherwise nice, tame, sweet, loving, well-behaved and well cared for pets. I've seen it, and I've seen their owners recover and love their pets anyway.>>
You are certainly right there... I work with foxhounds, and it's fairly common to find that there's been a squabble and someone's got a puncture or slash wound (in fact, I found one this morning). Hard to say what causes it--we do have a couple of young males who are of the age to think they might take over the alpha position, and the "senior" stallion hound seems to be firmly smacking them down. Ditto for the gyp pen, where there's some, er, b*tchy behavior since two are in heat! My horses can be pretty rough on one another, and the beloved mare I helped into the world occasionally has to be told "It's *my* stall and I let you live in it" by making her believe, for about 20 seconds, that she is going to DIE--as an older herd mare would do. They are not "kind" to one another...
Sorry about your Susie. The only thing I can suggest, for another time, is perhaps to introduce two or more (who are already acquainted, perhaps raised together) at the same time. This seems to help with other livestock. Not only do the two newcomers have each other for companionship (thus sometimes less of the fear response you saw in Susie), but it breaks up the amount of ganging up (the others don't have the single obvious target).
Rhonda
Sidesaddle Hall of Famer
Five-time US National Sidesaddle Champion
ASA Instructor
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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