The reason space pirates "pirate" has nothing to do with being an "asswhipe". We aren't being mean to anyone or trying to hurt people.
You're probably not one of them, but there are a couple of pirates who, intentionally, shot at motherships/privateers to prevent warp, from what I understand a s kind of private revenge to the "log out in space" thing. At one time a pirate said in local (space) chat "We will never let you leave".
When that happened at Rocktropia space station, "you" (not you personally but those who did it) didn't only delay the mothership owner or was an annoyance to the group operating the mothership, for weeks you delayed the mothership for upwards an hour so they had to change the schedule to do Rocktropia last to minimize the annoyance. I, as a player, during the limited relatively precious evening time I have between work and bed, was pretty much stuck on that ship when it happened. All that for something that felt like a more or less personal vendetta against that mothership service.
Then, around newyear, I've been shot down a couple of times by people you might know, catching me up as I flew from space station, though at that distance it shouldn't have been possible. And, well, though I didn't lose anything it did cause an annoyance as I got a CTD (alternatively spend a minute at revival because of "you may not move"), then repair up quad, and then fly off again.
You are most likely innocents of the above, but because of the ativities in space, and the sense that the group you are in works strongly together (including possibly sharing tips how to use certain "game mechanics"), your group have a strong reputation. It would be one thing if it would be a society with one well known pirate in it, but in your case the reputation of your group is pretty strong, especially since there has been more than one from it that have done activities that can be regarded as questionable (and still belongs to the group). As far as I know, I haven't seen any kind of excure or explaination what happened some year ago when beginners were summoned up to a privateer (I have to admit I don't know if it was your society that was involved in it or if it was "freelancers").
So, so come to the main question:
Killing someone's mob they're taming? I think it's not god behaviour, but that's just me. You can compare with the situation, someone is shooting a leviathan in a pvp zone, and someone comes by, kills the hunter, and takes over the leviathan. Would that be ok?
The main reason why it hurts here is pretty much that the mob you lost was a rare one. As for harassment, for the same reason it's hard to set the finger on it since it was just one creature - albeit rare. It can be a different story if someone follows you around to kill every mob you start to whip. I once saw one "beginner" becoming mad because there was another player following him and killing his mobs. It turned out that the second person was just frustrated with loot returns, and he thought that the first beginner, killing expsaurs with opalo, was damaging the loot because he hunted too eco. So in that case there was no evil thought involved, just general frustration with loot and the thought that chasing off that other hunter would make loot better.
And while it's "guilt by association"; it's a fact that your society do have a reputation, and unless you have an individual reputation, as a "good guy" or "bad guy", some people who don't know you personally, will see which society you represent, and take it as fact you are representing that society, sharing the values they have proven to show in the past.
(On the other hand, hen I see a pirate do something on ground, I think "oh nice, it's one less pirate in space!")
