History CarnivoreConfusion / WesternAnimation

* Ways the ''Franchise/{{Madagascar}}'' franchise playing with the trope outside [[CarnivoreConfusion/AnimatedFilms the movies]]:

* Ways the ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' franchise playing with the trope outside [[CarnivoreConfusion/AnimatedFilms the movies]]:

* In ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunksMeetTheWolfman'', Theodore is stated to be vegetarian while his brothers aren't. They're all chipmunks, obviously, and are usually depicted as normal chipmunks who have picked up more humanoid tendencies (despite their abnormal size).

* ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownThanksgiving'': The ending has Snoopy and Woodstock, the latter of whom is a bird, sitting down to have a turkey dinner. Woodstock does look perturbed when Snoopy offers him the wishbone, but only for a moment. The bonus feature on the special's new DVD release has Bill Melendez admitting even he thought that scene was rather morbid. It ''really'' doesn't help that on several occasions in the comic, Woodstock and the other birds spent Thanksgiving hiding at Snoopy's place because they were terrified of becoming Thanksgiving dinners themselves.

** The inhabitants of the Candy Kingdom in the Land of Ooo are sentient candy. Every building and the streets are made out of candy too. This is addressed in the first Susan Strong episode -- after Finn shows her that she can eat the sidewalk, she tries to eat a passing resident. Finn stops her, explaining that she can't eat a Candy ''Person.'' Unfortunately, she assumes that she can eat everyone except ''that'' person and brings her tribe to attack the city.
** More specifically referenced in the episode 'Hitman' where Finn and Jake are making sandwiches with slices of meat. [[BrickJoke Later in the same episode,]] after a bad dream, [[AcidRefluxNightmare Jake resolves to "stop eating Meat Man"]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' Dr. Weird takes this trope to it's (il)logical conclusion.
--> ''MY ASS HAS FINALLY DECIDED TO EAT MY HAND!''

** In "The Meddler", Gumball tries to pass off his telling Penny "I love you" as "I love peanuts". Penny gets offended because she is herself a peanut, and says that would be like her telling Gumball she liked to eat cats.
** "The World" shows that while some of the food is anthropomorphic enough to live like a human would, ''all'' of the food (and everything else) is sentient, and some of it isn't too happy about being eaten. Though the hot dog and soda seem alright with it.
** A poster in the back of Elmore Middle School listing rules includes a rule against eating other students. In "The Coach" it turns out Jamie has done exactly that: cue a flash cut of Sarah's head (ice cream) with an unpeeled Banana Joe on top, each having a noticeable bite taken out of them.
** In "The Flower", Leslie (a flower) tries to get Penny to give up plant-eating because she's herself a plant and shouldn't be eating her own kind.
** In "The Bumpkin", Idaho (a potato) asks Richard what the french fries he's eating are. Richard then throws them out the window.
** In "The Job", Gumball and Darwin deliver a pizza to two anthropomorphic pizzas, though the pizzas talk about it as though they're going to raise him as a child rather than eat him. Then Gumball accidentally [[BlackComedy drops it]].
** In "The Name", Gumball takes a bite out of an apple on the table in front of Banana Joe. This causes him to remark "Hey! That's my cousin!" and we then see said apple had a face and begins to cry.
** In "The Hug", one of the things Gumball does to break off his "friendship" with Hot Dog Guy is to treat him to a hot dog lunch. In his internal monologue, he's spitting and screaming in disgust, [[StepfordSmiler but goes along with it]].
** "The Potato" has Darwin giving up eating potatoes due to thinking it is offending Idaho. It turns out Idaho didn't mind because apparently potato-people are not the same as edible potatoes.
** In "The End," Anton is shown eating a sandwich, despite being an anthropomorphic piece of toast.

* ''WesternAnimation/BackAtTheBarnyard'': The fact that some of the cast of barn animals include a dog and a ferret, tends not to bother the others at all. However, Freddy the ferret does very frequently fantasize eating his best friend, Peck (who happens to be a chicken), but tries to maintain a vegetarian diet (the producers seem to disregard the fact that ferrets are obligate carnivores and completely lack the ability to derive nutrition from plant matter). In one scene, Otis the cow is seen eating a salami sandwich, but later turns out it's just veggie salami.
** Freddy actually ''does'' eat Peck once or twice, such as in a christmas episode and while sick, but the latter always ends up fine and presumably escapes or is willingly released offscreen. There's even an episode where Freddy, who can't remember the night before, is put on trial and banished for allegedly (fatally) eating Peck. [[spoiler:He didn't. Peck was just laying in an aloe patch because he had molted and needed lotion.]]
* Rather horrific {{deconstruct|edTrope}}ion in ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'', which takes place in a world populated by humans and {{Funny Animal}}s. One episode shows a chicken farmer who is himself a chicken, and his livestock are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4xytsouUYo just as anthropomorphic]] as himself, but as he explains they are injected with hormones at birth that make them no more intelligent than real, non-anthropomorphic chickens. In a previous episode, a cow waitress was shown angrily serving steak (apparently, from similarly artificially retarded cows) to a human customer.

* The ChristmasSpecial ''Christopher The Christmas Tree'' uses the PredatorsAreMean model. A group of WoodlandCreatures take up residence in the eponymous tree, specifically seeking shelter from foxes and weasels. The only time said fox and weasel show up, however, all the other animals are out looking for food, so they simply taunt Christopher and leave.
* ''WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts'': The WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck cartoons ''Donald's Ostrich'' (1937) and ''Chef Donald'' (1941) featured, respectively, a radio broadcast and a cookbook with recipes on roast duck. However, Donald responds not with existential horror but mild annoyance, muttering "[[StealthPun Over my dead body]]!" in the former cartoon.

* ''WesternAnimation/KryptoTheSuperDog'': In one episode, Krypto and his cat friend Streaky (who also has the same powers) are exposed to red kryptonite and turn into fish versions of themselves. Not only are the sharks portrayed as being mean bastards preying on innocent fish, there's actually a dolphin who is appalled that Streaky eats fish, and has the nerve to call him (along with a bunch of other fish who find out the truth) a "fish eater". Both CarnivoreConfusion ''and'' ArtisticLicenseBiology since both dolphins and whales are treated as if they are related to fish. It's even worse when you consider that Dolphins feed primarily on fish.
* ''Franchise/TheLionKing'' largely avoided this trope until ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard''. The cartoon is about Simba's son (a lion cub) and his friends (several who are carnivores or omnivores) protecting the Pridelands. More than once this involves "saving" prey from predators (or rather, ''unsympathetic'' predators). Despite this, the main characters eating other animals is acknowledged. One episode even revolves around the fact Fuli (a cheetah) hunts alone, though we never actually see her catching her prey. The Lion Guard frequently interact with prey animals however they don't seem scared of them. To add to the confusion, sometimes they speak, other times they only make animal noises.
* Literature/LittleBear, is a bear, but is friends with a cat, a hen and a duck, all of which can be prey animals to a bear. The only meat he is seen eating is fish, and this is mostly because NoCartoonFish is in appliance. There are also Cat and Owl. They are said to hunt at night and when Little Bear meets a mouse, he knows that he has to hide it from them.

** The excellent short "WesternAnimation/BirdsAnonymous" may be the earliest example of the "predators can just quit eating animals" trope. Sylvester joined the titular group, then suffered hard while going {{cold turkey|sAreEverywhere}} due to lack of bird flesh. In the end, the president of Birds Anonymous ends up chasing Tweety as well.

* For the most part, this trope is skipped over in WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb, despite one episode showing other species had some type of AnimalTalk, and that certain ones are (secretly) [[AmplifiedAnimalAptitude hyper-competent]] secret agents. However, there is ''one'' recurring joke about how Agent T the Turkey disappeared around Thanksgiving that spikes off a lot of FridgeHorror.

** Heffer (a steer) has been seen eating beef products. This gets lampshaded in "Heff in a Handbasket":

** In the show, Anthropomorphic animals seem to exist alongside regular animals and some episodes made a point of that quite clearly.
** However, in "The Good, The Bad, and the Wallaby" Heffer ends up living on a farm and gets put on a truck with a bunch of other cattle being sent to market. He things this means they're picking up groceries; one of his compatriots explains that no, they're going to ''become'' groceries. Heffer freaks out, while the rest of the herd think he's being weird about it. The farmer ends up changing his mind and brings the herd back to the ranch, now a resort.
** Heffer's family are all ''wolves'' (he's adopted). They originally intended to eat him, but his mother protested because he was so cute. His adoptive grandfather, on the other hand, doesn't care and still wants to but can't due to having lost all of his teeth.
** "To Heck and Back" begins with a chicken applying for a job at Chokey Chicken and coming out as frozen chicken meat. Admittedly it was all apart of Heffer's dream, but the end of the episode has her about to apply for the job for real. It's left ambiguous as to whether or not the dream will repeat itself in reality.
** "An Elk for Heffer" revolves around the fact that as a rite of passage, Heffer must bring an elk to dinner. However, he instead brings an elk as a ''date''. The family makes it clear afterward that the intention was to eat Elkie, to which Heffer immediately objects.

'''Virginia:''' Oh. Okie-dokie. (twitches)\\
'''Heffer:''' (horrfied) In the oven?!\\

* ''WesternAnimation/SixtyFourZooLane'' has had several different approaches to the issue, ranging from ignoring it entirely to finding workarounds, but generally tries to avoid predator/prey dynamics among the central cast:
** Reginald the Lion is depicted being friends with various animals that could be potential prey in real life, including an antelope, an elephant, and a giraffe. The most hostility that ever comes between them is Reginald getting angry at them for interrupting his nap.
** Victor the Crocodile has some shades of PredatorsAreMean as he is often depicted as a bully, but he is never actually shown eating anything. The most he ever uses his teeth for is "snapping" at insects, which is more of a taunt than an actual attempt at eating.
** One notable exception is the unnamed spider from "Henrietta the Hairy Hippo" who is actually shown using his web to catch prey for eating (though he is [[PredatorsAreMean also depicted being cruel to said prey]], and he is never actually seen eating anything). The weird part is that he somehow managed to catch a ''hippopotamus''.
** The show is a bit more lenient towards showing animals that eat insects. In these instances, the insects are usually depicted as being non-sentient.
** Snowbert the polar bear is best friends with a seal, despite the fact that in real life seals are a big part of polar bears' diets. Interestingly this discrepancy actually gets talked about, but they get around the issue by claiming Snowbert only eats fish (which, like the bugs, are depicted as non-sentient). Some of the dialogue also implies that Snowbert is unusual for this reason, and other polar bears would behave more realistically.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':

--->"I've ''been'' most of those animals!"

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011,'' Third Earth's WorldOfFunnyAnimals depicts Thundera's [[{{Catfolk}} Cats]] not as obligate carnivores, but omnivores like humans. They eat meat, presumably non-sentient species, but the {{Fishmen}} sailors from "Ramlak Rising" have no qualms about eating other sentients...like the ''Cats.'' Indeed, the ship's cook has designs on stuffing the Thunderkittens, and when the Fishman Captain Tunar says he would have let the Cats eat his own first mate had he known they were such competent fighters, he's not entirely joking. In a subsequent episode, the Cats leave ''nonanthropomorphic'' fish-skeletons as food scraps, while an enemy LizardFolk muses on the idea of eating the Cats roasted.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'':

** ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTales'': One episode has Tom enthusiastically meeting a group of lions during an African safari. Unfortunately for him, the lions think their "cousin" might make a good meal.

* One of [[WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa Uncle Grandpa's]] friends is named Pizza Steve, and yes, he is a living slice of pizza wearing shades. Despite this, he still eats pizza.

* ''Animation/VukTheLittleFox'' averted this: many animal characters, even those who have spoken lines, or even [[NominalImportance names]], are killed and eaten by the main character, a fox.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'' has an episode where [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Eliza]] is trying to convince a stoat not to eat an Arctic hare, to no avail; the episode eventually ends with the pair running away to continue their war. Eliza discusses this with her father, who notes that they are animals, after all--stoats eat meat, and you can't convince them not to.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' franchise plays with this trope big time:
** {{Averted|Trope}}, then reconstructed in the original movie which is a major plot point. Alex the Lion, after escaping the zoo where he was fed steaks, eventually gets hungry and starts wishing to eat his herbivore companions. They ultimately succeed in finding another source of food for him - ''sushi.''

* Rather horrific {{deconstruct|edTrope}}ion in ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'', which takes place in a world populated by humans and {{Funny Animal}}s. One episode shows a chicken farmer who is himself a chicken, and his livestock are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4xytsouUYo just as anthropomorphic]] as himself, but as he explains they are injected with hormones at birth that make them no more intelligent than real, non-anthropomorphic chickens. In a previous episode, a cow waitress was shown angrily serving steak (apparently, from similarly artificically retarded cows) to a human customer.

* This is a primary theme of ''WesternAnimation/DontEatTheNeighbors''. A family of rabbits live near a family of wolves, and a fox and a bear are also present. Fox and the father wolf wants to hunt and eat the father rabbit. Meanwhile, the kids in the wolf and rabbit families don't try to eat each other and get along fine. And Bear doesn't seem to want to eat anybody.

* This is a primary theme of ''Don't Eat the Neighbors''. A family of rabbits live near a family of wolves, and a fox and a bear are also present. Fox and the father wolf wants to hunt and eat the father rabbit. Meanwhile, the kids in the wolf and rabbit families don't try to eat each other and get along fine. And Bear doesn't seem to want to eat anybody.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', one of Pearl's friends, Sheila, is an anthropomorphic squid, which sperm whales like her are known to eat.

* ''WesternAnimation/SixtyFourZooLane has had several different approaches to the issue, ranging from ignoring it entirely to finding workarounds, but generally tries to avoid predator/prey dynamics among the central cast:

** Freddy actually ''does'' eat Puck once or twice, such as in a christmas episode and while sick, but the latter always ends up fine and presumably escapes or is willingly released offscreen. There's even an episode where Freddy, who can't remember the night before, is put on trial and banished for allegedly (fatally) eating Peck. [[spoiler:He didn't. Peck was just laying in an aloe patch because he had molted and needed lotion.]]

** There's even an episode where Freddy, who can't remember the night before, is put on trial and banished for allegedly eating Peck. [[spoiler:He didn't. Peck was just laying in an aloe patch because he had molted and needed lotion.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BoyGirlDogCatMouseCheese'''s very premise involves a family of two humans and the aforementioned animals and piece of anthropomorphic cheese, all living in the same house. They tend to bicker, but manage to get along in spite of that. Amazingly enough, none of this is [[WidgetSeries the strangest aspect of the show]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts'': The DonaldDuck cartoons ''Donald's Ostrich'' (1937) and ''Chef Donald'' (1941) featured, respectively, a radio broadcast and a cookbook with recipes on roast duck. However, Donald responds not with existential horror but mild annoyance, muttering "[[StealthPun Over my dead body]]!" in the former cartoon.

'''Heffer:''' (horrfied) In the oven?!