A Mother Kills its Babies

I grew up on a farm, and saw the life cycle begin and end numerous times. On occassion, a mother cat would kill its own babies, and I had heard of dogs doing the same. Obviously as a young impressionable boy this act seemed heinous, yet I always knew the mother felt justified in some way, for whatever reason. In a dog's case, a very nervous mother can ignore any maternal instinct and consume it's own offspring much as it would the afterbirth. An environmental cause, and inability of the animal to adjust to it, would be enough to cause this.
Now, is the dog bad? Is the dog evil? NO! The dog is just doing what the dog is doing. Obviously life will do everything in its power to sustain itself and continue, but if natural forces move to snuff it out, they will. How about the picture awhile back in a local newspaper of a large male polar bear with a cub's head in it's mouth? We as humans are ill equipped to lay our morality onto animals, although we naturally do, time and time again.
So, now we lay our morality onto humans. Do so, but consider, as you would, an animal who just happens to have a very large brain, but is still an animal. This animal has family history, culture, environment, health, conditioning and behaviour, boiled down to a very simple concoction that can cause a human to do, in our words, the most amazing, and most despicable things.
Recent news has inspired this writing, as a 24 year old woman from East Van has just been charged of killing her 2nd baby. If we are to make a judgement on someone's actions, and punish them for those actions, take into consideration the plethora of influences throughout the years of that person's development. Punish the neighbour that raped her. Punish the mayor that failed to protect her rights. Punish the father that neglected her. Punish the school system that ignored her. Yes, punish her, punish her to the full extent of the law, but what about all the other people who had a hand in influencing that person through her life, and the decisions she made?