Carnivore Confusion

"You are what you eat"? No. This is you eat what you are, and apparently being okay with it.

"Let me get this straight. You (Simba) know her (Nala); she knows you. But she wants to eat him (Pumbaa). And... everybody's okay with this? DID I MISS SOMETHING?!"

— Timon, The Lion King

There's an unspoken awkward issue in fiction involving Talking Animals. A lion is a carnivore - its teeth and intestinal tract are geared to eat meat. But what if the lion is as much of a person as Mr. Antelope? If everyone can talk, and everyone at least implicitly has the same thoughts and feelings as everyone else regardless of species, does this mean predatory creatures are forced to engage in a form of murder to eat? And, if the animals are people, would eating each other be considered cannibalism? And then what happens when human characters are added into the mix? Let's not get started on Anthropomorphic Food...

May or may not result in Sapient Eat Sapient, depending on how it is handled. See also Super-Persistent Predator, Let's Meet the Meat, Ascended to Carnivorism, and I Taste Delicious. Compare Furry Confusion, Cats Are Mean, Reptiles Are Abhorrent (notice that small lizards and turtles, two groups that include herbivores, get to be non-abhorrent far more frequently than snakes, which are all carnivores), and What Measure Is a Non-Cute?. As with What Measure is a Non Cute, do not expect to see realistic animal behavior taken into account. When it's between a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire and a human, it's Warm Bloodbags Are Everywhere. Things get really ugly when I'm a Humanitarian or To Serve Man gets thrown into the mix.

When an animal character is named after the food they provide, it's A Pig Named "Porkchop".

---

Example subpages

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Comic Strips
• Disney & Pixar
• Films — Animation
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Tabletop Games
• Video Games
• Webcomics
• Western Animation

noreallife

---

Advertising

• The M&M mascots take this to another level when they talk about getting eaten, and in at least one commercial eat one of their own kind.
• This goes especially for Charlie of StarKist Tuna. For years, he had been trying to essentially get killed, chopped up, packed in a can, and eaten.
• Korean chicken restaurants often have cartoon chickens on their signage and it's not unheard of for those cartoon chickens to be happily holding plates of cooked chicken limbs.◊
• Chick-Fil-A actually averts this by doing a series of ads with sapient cows shilling the restaurant... because they want people to eat more chicken and less beef.
• Then there's the infamous "Miss Piggy advertising a bacon breakfast at Denny's". Watch it here.
• In The '80s, there were several commercials featuring Foghorn Leghorn telling people to eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Asian and Eastern European Animation

• In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, Wilie the baby wolf seems to think of the goats as his friends and treats them accordingly, and yet he doesn't have any problem with his parents Wolffy and Wolnie wanting to eat the goats.
• Carnivore confusion is all around in Vízipók-Csodapók. The water spider is a Friend to All Living Things despite being a predatory species. The diadem spider is acknowledged to eat flies, but is presented as unlucky and is never seen catching a fly. The ladybug is shown eating aphids, which appears to be okay because the ladybug is cute and the aphids are unpleasant plant parasites. Meanwhile, other predators like the praying mantis, the antlion and the water stick insect are presented as antagonists, trying to eat the heroes' friends.

Fan Works

• All Assorted Animorphs AUs: Discussed in "What if they were in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?". After Tobias (in his hawk body) swallows a chicken wing whole, Boyle wonders if it counts as cannibalism. Cassie points out that humans are more closely related to pigs than hawks are to chickens.
• Discussed in Intelligence Factor. In the Oranguru chapter, Soma says that sapience is where most people draw the line between murder and hunting.
• 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 My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic... where cows are presented as sentient creatures...
• Estee's Naked Lunch in the Triptych Continuum has a similar idea, wherein a griffin comes to Equestria to open a butcher shop. Given that there are a few species who need to eat meat (including a few griffins) living there already, and they've been relegated to getting their food from back-alley shops (or worse, pet supply stores), they're at least happy about his arrival. As is a pony named Sizzler, who works at the meat station at the palace. Word of God is that in this continuity, meat is harvested from the non-sentient monster species. (Basically, if it's trying to kill and eat you, go right ahead and return the favor.) Ranching is a decidedly hazardous profession. There's also a cross-species agreement in place called The Treaty Of Menagerie, which basically states that none who consume meat shall take it from any who talk or think — but not every race has signed off on it, with the Diamond Dogs and dragons noticeably absent.
• In RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, ponies can and occasionally do eat meat, though never from anything sapient. However, not all ponies really get the difference, and this has caused occasional friction between Trixie (whose hometown of Neigh Orleans has a much more meat-based cuisine than most regions of Equestria) and her friends.
• Littlepip and Velvet Remedy argue over the former's eating rabbit shish kebab in Fallout: Equestria.
• The Pieces Lie Where They Fell:
  • Vix-Lei, despite being a minotaur, sees nothing wrong with eating beef. She explains that since the cows in the world of Canterlot High are non-sapient and different enough from her own species, it doesn’t matter.
  • In the sequel, despite being a pony (a nominally herbivore species), Gentle Step has developed a taste for meat.
• The Bridge: Numerous Equestrian species like mermares and griffins are at the least omnivores, but the distinction between eating non-sapient animals or fish and other sapient beings is seen as a very big difference. So herbivorous ponies don't pay their neighbor's much mind. Some dragons however do see even sapient species as prey and the offenders are presented as nothing short of monstrous criminals.
  • That said news that Godzilla Junior once regularly dined on dolphins and whales when he was growing up and saw nothing wrong with it cause some discomfort. Godzilla was aware of cetacean intelligence but often saw them as a bunch of jerks who'd attack him when he was young, he still didn't consider it cannibalism as he'd never consider doing that to humans or ponies so he does draw a line at someone fully sapient.
• In Short Hand, Andrew, the human in Equestria, makes note of his diet problems as eggs, chicken, and fish aren't enough for him to be healthy and he needs the occasional red meat. After asking around, Applejack presents him with a perfectly cooked steak, but Andrew is rather unnerved by the cow watching and commenting that she knew the cow he's about to eat. When he decides to eat it anyway, she starts gloating as apparently his steak came from an enemy of hers, which causes Andrew to simply take the steak and leave.
• The Spell Of Sealing: Most sapient races in the Forest are part of something called the Great Agreement, which (possibly among other things) forbids those who are part of it from eating other sapients. The acromantulas are specifically noted not to be party to this Agreement, though the wise wolves still will not eat them.

Films — Live-Action

• According to an Expanded Universe source, the reek beast (the red and gray rhino-like one) shown in the gladiator arena in Attack of the Clones was actually a herbivore. The Nemoidians discovered that if they were kept hungry long enough and fed only enough plant matter to maintain their health, they'd willingly attack and devour animals. (Meaning cruelty to animals is another atrocity that you could add to the growing list of crimes committed by the Trade Federation up to that point.)
• An in-movie bit in Babe, when Farmer Hogget somehow assumes Babe killed the sheep. Pigs are omnivorous and have been used to 'hide' bodies in the past by feeding them chopped-up corpses... but Babe is still a piglet, so it's unlikely he could kill a grown sheep.
• Somewhat parodied in Enchanted. Giselle can call on animal friends to help her. When she does so in the real world, she gets an assortment of "city animals" (rats, pigeons, flies, and roaches) to help her clean. They work well together during the cleaning song, but once it's over, a pigeon nonchalantly turns to the roach next to it and gobbles it up.
• Stuart Little: No rules are put in place for who can and cannot be eaten. Stuart is immediately gobbled up by the cat Snowbell upon entering the Little house, and Snowbell is given the ultimatum that he cannot eat him. Upon being told about this, the other neighborhood cats laugh at the idea, implying cats eating mice is common and understood, in a world where both species can talk (Although with the cats, its ambiguous who can understand them, and only mice wear clothes).
• Undercover Kitty: A self-inflicted case revolving around Minoes, a cat who turned into a human. Part of what makes Minoes realize she can't return to being a cat is an attempt to hunt a bird, which she can't go through with because she feels guilt now. Earlier, a shorter time after being transformed, she could try and eat a mouse just fine, but feeling this guilt makes her realize she can never truly be a cat again. Her old friend derides her for this, saying she's just like a person in that way.

Theatre

• Taken to the extreme in Thorbjørn 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).
  • Carnivorism is played much like alcoholism here too, as the fox, who had been the main antagonist up to this point, turns to stealing meat from the nearest farm to get his "fix".

Toys

• In the Sylvanian Families 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, and some of the highly detailed food can be a little suspect. Barbequeues are also risky. But topping that is the hamburger resturaunt, and for those low on space there's also a hamburger wagon.
  Official Babble: No fast food rubbish here! All the meals on offer at the Sylvanian Hamburger Restaurant are top quality, healthy, locally sourced products! If you're in a hurry, the restaurant even has a take-away window that you can drive up to!
  Official Babble: The Hamburger Wagon has fold out counters and fold out rooftop seating area. Comes with lots of hamburgers, hotdogs, sandwiches, rolls, drinks and other accessories.
  • A Farmyard Accessories set comes with milk churns. There was a milkman figure (currently unavailable). And finally, there's a cow family. For the contemplative among us, this borders on Squick material.
  • It's worth noting that in the 1987 animated series, the michievous 'Slydale' fox family was the most likely to cause trouble, using Predators Are Mean. Even now rabbit families outnumber any other species.
• My Little Pony:
  • Generation 1 characters were generally somewhat civilized animals, and generally acted like horses that just happened to talk and live in castles, and occasionally wear clothes. Various non-pony species were also portrayed as sentient in G1. Almost everything they ate — whether it popcorn or grass — was normally something a vegetarian could... yet there's a pony named Munchy, who has pictures of hot dogs and hamburgers all over her body, and her card refers to ponies eating hot dogs.^note Surprisingly, horses will happily eat hot dogs and burgers in real life. If that same backcard story is any indication, Munchy simply transforms things into junk food via magic, thereby sidestepping the whole issue.
  • G1 also had a lion named Kingsley, and Tabby's backcard story describes her playing with lion cubs. What Ponyland's lions eat is conveniently left unmentioned. (Maybe Munchy is responsible for supplying them with meat?)

Web Original

• In Angry Dog most ravenous but Funny Animals have no qualms about casually devouring each other.
• Inverted in ASDF Movie 7, where the talking muffin wants to be eaten (and is so cheerful about it!) yet nobody he meets feels like eating him.
  Mr. Muffin: Why won't you let me die?
• Darwin's Soldiers mostly avoided this trope for the first RP as all meat was fish. The second RP got a little sticky with Aisha wanting a meatball sub and slabs of meat hanging in the walk in freezer. The third RP also mostly avoided it as well.
  • However, Word of God is inconsistent on this matter; Serris said that anthro and "normal" animals exist and eating "normal" animals was acceptable. But he has also said to assume all meat is seafood.
• The puppets of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared are notably having a chicken picnic in the third video. Not only is one of the people eating it clearly a bird, but they are also eating it raw.
• Dragon Ball Z Abridged uses this as a minor Running Gag in reference to Oolong.
  • In Revenge of Cooler Abridged, Krillin's campfire stew includes "por... (glances at Oolong) ...poise"; when Cooler's minion Sauza says that it actually contains pork, Oolong shouts "Rot in hell Krillin, I almost ate that!"
  • In the Android Saga, Chiaotzu makes tonkotsu ramen and, just like in the Cooler movie, Oolong asks what's in it. The difference is that Chiaotzu admits it (realizing what he's saying as he's saying it), which makes a shocked Oolong remark "I Taste Delicious!"
  • In History of Trunks Abridged, the Kame House group is shown hiding from the Androids in Master Roshi's submarine. They discuss going for a food run, and when Puar says that one of the only foodstuffs they have left is pork rinds, Oolong replies that he's already made peace with that fact.
• Dream SMP:
  • Captain Puffy (initially an anthropomorphic sheep) is fine with consuming meat so long as it's not mutton.
  • A variation occurs with Fundy. He doesn't eat salmon and seeing dead salmon causes him to freeze, as he fears it could be his mother, Sally.
• In Felarya, most characters eat humans, yet are really nice otherwise. It isn't odd for the predators to exchange words with their prey.
• The Furtopian Hoofer Revolution embodies this trope. The entire hoofer revolution of 2010's April fool's day forum take-over revolved around this trope as its theme; the ungulates and other herbivores rebelling against the carnivores. Further hilarity ensued once a herbivorous fox, a carnivorous rabbit, and a number of shape-shifters came into play, adding to the confusion.
• Hector's World: Predators like dolphins and crabs are friends with fish and their diets are never brought up, although when Ranjeet is warned not to put his personal data online, an angler fish at a computer is seen as an example of a shady character.
• As several members of hololive are Little Bit Beastly animal girls, there is no shortage of jokes regarding this trope, such as Botan's (a lioness) continued attempts to devour Watame (a sheep), or the time Moona asked Gura (a shark) to enter a hot tub while playing Minecraft before tossing in several carrots and joking that she was making shark soup. At least Gura has explicitly confirmed that she doesn't like to eat humans (which is Truth in Television, as humans contain far too little fat for a shark to consider us appetizing). In fact, despite her claims at being an "apex predator", any Carnivore Confusion jokes involving Gura so far have revolved around her as the prey, not the predator, especially after the debut of Sakamata Chloe the orca girl. And all of that is without getting into the moral and ethical implications of Kiara (a phoenix) being the manager of a fast food restaurant specializing in chicken dishes yet explicitly named "Kiara Fried Phoenix".
  Gura: Please don't eat me.
  Chloe: Tabemasu. ("I will eat.")
  Gura: (sounding worried) Onegaishimasu. ("Please.") Noo...
  Chloe: Oishisou. ("[You] look delicious.")
  Gura: Tabenaide kudasai. ("Please don't eat [me].")
• Lucas the Spider subverts this with the titular spider. At first, Bzzt (a housefly) is terrified that Lucas (a jumping spider) will attempt to eat him. Luckily for Bzzt, the friendly Lucas turns out to be one of the herbivorous species of jumping spider.
• In Serina, this factors into the shared backstory of the woodcrafters and the gravediggers. The gravediggers are a culture of trap-making hunters who prey on the herbivorous, social woodcrafters, with neither one initially recognizing the other as intelligent. Eventually, the woodcrafters and gravediggers manage to form a civilization together, until a changing climate causes the woodcrafters to go extinct. Later on, during the Ocean Age, we're introduced to the warmongers, a ferocious open ocean-based culture of the daydreamer species who have no moral qualms about preying on other intelligent species.
• In Starter Squad, all Pokémon can talk to each other, but not to humans. Bulbasaur and Squirtle are shocked and disturbed by Charmander's habit of eating the Pokémon he defeats, and it's portrayed as equivalent to cannibalism. But later on, a Pidgeotto is shown eating a Caterpie, and the show doesn't even comment on it.
• Super Smash Adventures: Billy Piranha is a Piranha Plant who prefers eating vegetables, particularly watermelons.

---