History Main / CarnivoreConfusion

* Still others, usually ones that take place in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals, will completely ignore the issue altogether. The cow will happily join his dog friend for some burgers, and absolutely ''no-one'' will think of the implications.

->''"[[LetMeGetThisStraight Let me get this straight]]. You know her; she knows you. But she wants to eat him. And... everybody's okay with this? '''Did I miss something?!'''"''

* CarnivoreConfusion/{{Live-Action TV}}

->''"[[LetMeGetThisStraight Let me get this straight]]. You know her; she knows you. But she wants to eat him. And... everybody's okay with this? '''Did I miss something?'''"''

* ''WebVideo/SuperSmashAdventures'': Billy Piranha is a Piranha Plant who prefers eating vegetables, particularly watermelons.

* While not an animal, the [[ITasteDelicious cereal squares]] in commercials for Cinnamon Toast Crunch are [[YouTasteDelicious cannibalistic]].

* By far the most common approach, especially in older fiction, is the PredatorsAreMean subtrope. All your heroes are herbivores. All the villains are carnivores à la the Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs.[[note]] In RealLife, pigs and wolves are both omnivores, eating both plants and other animals. Wolves will prey upon pigs, but only to the extent that they would prey on other organisms, e.g. it would be rewarding and they could pull it off without getting themselves killed.[[/note]] This subtrope is so strong culturally that people assume RealLife predators are mean, evil, and nasty, and all the herbivores are cute, cuddly, and friendly. Anyone with any knowledge of real animal behavior knows that's not the case at all; some herbivores like rhinos and hippos can be ''extremely'' aggressive, while social predators (wolves, orcas, etc.) can be tamed, trained, and even become companions.

[[caption-width-right:350:When the phrase 'you are what you eat' is taken [[LiteralMinded a little too seriously]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350:When the phrase 'you are what you eat' is taken seriously.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:When the phrase 'you are what you what you eat' is taken seriously.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Daisy and Donald's relationship did not end on a good note.]]

* VegetarianCarnivore: Depart from real-world biology completely: the carnivore can choose to go vegan if they really want to. A common way of doing so is by rendering carnivorism as something similar to alcoholism. (''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', ''{{Pride}}'', etc.)

* Sometimes your heroes are predatory animals. Now carnivores are okay, so scavengers often become the [[VillainByDefault Villains By Default]]. The usual ethos is that only evil weirdos eat carrion, and only cowards do not hunt. They will be depicted as ugly and intimidating. Often the carnivorous heroes will never been seen actually killing and/or eating another animal. Example: ''Disney/TheLionKing''.[[note]] Non-exclusive scavenging and predation is rarely used in fiction. In RealLife, lions scavenge off hyena kill more often than vice versa.[[/note]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Daisy and Donald's relationship did not end on a good note...]]

* Some works, such as ''HappyFeet'', will [[HandWave half-refer]] to this problem, and then avoid the issue entirely.

* Finally, predation can be treated as just a fact of life. See Creator/RudyardKipling's ''Literature/TheJungleBook'', the ''{{Dinotopia}}'' books, and the {{Webcomic}} ''KevinAndKell'', among a very, very few others: Carnivorism happens, it's nature, and it may even be incorporated as a part of both the talking animal economy and social structure.

* Similar to the option immediately above, some works such as ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' and the ''{{Spellsinger}}'' novels make it clear that only some of the animals have human-like intelligence. In some fiction, there are explicit differences between the anthropomorphic and normal members of the same species -- bipedality, speech, clothing, etc. It's okay for a talking lion to eat a non-talking deer, but eating a talking deer would be tantamount to cannibalism.

* By far the most common approach, especially in older fiction, is the PredatorsAreMean subtrope. All your heroes are herbivores. All the villains are carnivores à la the Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs.[[hottip:*: In RealLife, pigs and wolves are both omnivores, eating both plants and other animals. Wolves will prey upon pigs, but only to the extent that they would prey on other organisms, e.g. it would be rewarding and they could pull it off without getting themselves killed.]] This subtrope is so strong culturally that people assume RealLife predators are mean, evil, and nasty, and all the herbivores are cute, cuddly, and friendly. Anyone with any knowledge of real animal behavior knows that's not the case at all; some herbivores like rhinos and hippos can be ''extremely'' aggressive, while social predators (wolves, orcas, etc.) can be tamed, trained, and even become companions.
* Sometimes your heroes are predatory animals. Now carnivores are okay, so scavengers often become the [[VillainByDefault Villains By Default]]. The usual ethos is that only evil weirdos eat carrion, and only cowards do not hunt. They will be depicted as ugly and intimidating. Often the carnivorous heroes will never been seen actually killing and/or eating another animal. Example: ''Disney/TheLionKing''.[[hottip:*: Non-exclusive scavenging and predation is rarely used in fiction. In RealLife, lions scavenge off hyena kill more often than vice versa.]]

* By far the most common approach, especially in older fiction, is the PredatorsAreMean subtrope. All your heroes are herbivores. All the villains are carnivores à la the Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs.[[hottip:*: In RealLife, pigs and wolves are both omnivores, eating both plants and other animals. Wolves will prey upon pigs, but only to the extent that they would prey on other organisms, e.g. it would be rewarding and they could pull it off without getting themselves killed.]] This subtrope is so strong culturally that people assume RealLife predators are mean, evil, and nasty, and all the herbivores are cute, cuddly, and friendly. Anyone with any knowledge of real animal behavior knows that's not the case at all; some herbivores like rhinos and hippos can be ''extremely'' aggressive.

* ''{{Fanfic/Pagliacci}}'' features a restaurant run by griffins aimed specifically at carnivores. As can be expected, they serve meat items, including beef. However, this is set in the world of MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic... where cows are presented as sentient creatures...

* Sometimes your heroes are predatory animals. Now carnivores are okay, so scavengers often become the [[VillainByDefault Villains By Default]]. The usual ethos is that only evil weirdos eat carrion, and only cowards do not hunt. They will be depicted as ugly and intimidating. Example: ''Disney/TheLionKing''.[[hottip:*: Non-exclusive scavenging and predation is rarely used in fiction. In RealLife, lions scavenge off hyena kill more often than vice versa.]]
* A increasingly popular option in fiction has been to render the carnivore's prey in a realistic, [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute non-cute manner]]. The prey does not talk -- the prey is not humanised in any way. [[NoCartoonFish Fish]], in particular, are nearly always a viable mealtime option, unless they're major characters.

* Taken to the extreme in Thorbjörn Egner's ''Dyrene i Hakkebakkeskogen'' (The Animals Of Hakkebakke Forest), one of Norway's most popular children's plays ever. By popular vote, the animals pass a law ''banning'' carnivorism. One of the animals who supports the law is the ''alpha bear'' (brown bears admittedly eating plants for 80% of their diet), while one of the animals who opposes it is a ''hedgehog'' (which eats invertebrates and small vertebrates).

[[caption-width-right:350:Shut up or you're next!]]

* In the ''SylvanianFamilies'' franchise, there are a lot of food accessory sets, and not all of them are clearly vegetarian. One release is a fish and chips van. But topping that is the ''hamburger resturaunt,'' and for those low on space there's also a ''hamburger wagon.''

* Depart from real-world biology completely: the carnivore can choose to go vegan if they really want to. A common way of doing so is by rendering carnivorism as something similar to alcoholism. (''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', ''{{Pride}}'', etc.)