Cutlery item a pet soon destroyed (8)
I believe the answer is:
teaspoon
'cutlery item' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a pet soon destroyed' is the wordplay.
'destroyed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'a'+'pet'+'soon'='apetsoon'
'apetsoon' is an anagram of 'TEASPOON'.
(Other definitions for teaspoon that I've seen before include "5 ml container" , "Small stirrer" , "Small piece of cutlery" , "Coffee stirrer?" , "Cooking unit" .)