Do dogs eat their own newborn puppies?

In some cases a mother dog kills and eats her puppies. This usually happens if the mother perceives her puppies as a threat to her safety, according to VCA Animal Hospitals.

If a mother dog and her puppies live in the wild, they are vulnerable to several different types of predators. The risk of an attack increases if the puppies cry out in distress. If this happens, the mother's natural survival instinct sometimes kicks in, prompting her to kill the puppies. If she kills the puppies, eating them is a possibility. The mother does this to reduce her risk of being attacked by a predator.