History Main / GoodAnimalsEvilAnimals

* UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}} has a long list of good animals and bad animals. Bad animals are most predators except for dogs, and include wolves, cats, snakes, frogs, wasp, flies and so on. Also some mythological like "winged dragons". Good animals include the dog, most cattle like sheep and ox, and the ant. This is the reason why it is said that Zoroastrians do no killed ants when they took some corn saying that they could spare some of it for them. Harming a dog was absolute taboo, whilst hunting the bad animals (like cats and wolves) was almost mandatory and it is said that Zoroastrianism mandates to have a weapon to kill snakes in the house. Interestingly some of these orders are the exact opposite in both Judaism and Islam were dogs, for example, are considered ritually unclean and cats are favoured as pets. This of course brought to the exact opposite situation when Islam became dominant in Iran as Muslims are not allowed to own dogs except for hunting and guarding (and not alloed to enter their houses) and cats are their favorite pets which caused friction between dog-loving Zoroastrian and cat-loving Muslims. In fact it is also said that misstreatment of dogs was a way for Iranian Muslims to taunt their Zoroastrian neighbors.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats}}'' features heroes based on big cats, with the bad guy's main {{Mooks}} being an ape-man, a jackal-man, a vulture-man, and a nasty lizard-man. The BigBad Mumm-Ra gets his power from the Ancient Spirits of Evil, deities which resemble a hog, a crocodile, a bull and a vulture. In contrast, his counterpart on the side of good Mumm-Rana gets her power from the Ancient Spirits of Goodness, deities which resemble a horse, an otter, a goat and an ibis.

** The ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' games play this straight with most villainous teams having at least one Poison-Type member.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' as well as their [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017]], with rare exceptions, generally follows the rule of "good ducks vs evil dogs" as if the dogs are portrayed as [[ScavengersAreScum villainous scavengers]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' as well as their [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017]], with rare exceptions, generally follows the rule of "ducks are good, dogs are evil".

** There were a couple of examples of 'bad' races becoming good, such as a sea rat who performed a HeelFaceTurn in ''The Bellmaker'', and a tribe of antagonistic squirrels in ''Martin the Warrior''. Cats could be either good or bad, possibly because one of the characters in the original ''Redwall'' novel was a good cat.

* ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'' played this to a T, with species being almost entirely good or entirely bad. Mice, Hares, Hedgehogs, Otters, and Badgers were always good. Rats, Weasels, Foxes, Ferrets, Stoats, and all reptiles were always bad. Snakes in particular were so bad that even the other 'bad' races abhored them. Birds of Prey, strangely, were usually Good, although often GoodIsNotNice.

* ''Literature/TheDeptfordMice'' books fall under this, too. Mice are good, rats are evil; squirrels are good, bats are good, and the main villain is [[spoiler:a cat]]. There are exceptions, rats that are sort-of good and nasty mice, but for the most part, convention is followed.

* ''TheDeptfordMice'' books fall under this, too. Mice are good, rats are evil; squirrels are good, bats are good, and the main villain is [[spoiler:a cat]]. There are exceptions, rats that are sort-of good and nasty mice, but for the most part, convention is followed.

* ''Film/CatsAndDogs'': A movie in which cats were evil and try to TakeOverTheWorld and dogs were good trying to [[SavingTheWorld save the world]]. In the sequel, however, some of the cats are actually good, but the villain is still a cat.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' the antagonists of the third season, Xindi, who plot to destroy humanity with mini-Death Stars because trans-dimensional beings told them humans will destroy their future home world, are split into five species -- the AlwaysChaoticEvil Reptillians and Insectoids, the much more benevolent Primates and Aboreals (who side with humans near the end of the season after being told they've been lied to by the trans-dimensonal beings), and the neutral Aquatics. There was a sixth species, the Avians, but they went extinct before the series began.

* In ''VideoGame/Minecraft'', mobs are classified as "passive" (will never attack the player and will run away if the player attacks it), "neutral" (may attack the player under certain conditions), and "hostile" (will attack the player on sight). The stereotypes are sometimes followed, sometimes not. For example, foxes and bats are both passive, but spiders are hostile.

* In ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'', the Bees are pacifists and would rather tickle people than sting them, but the Wasps play the BeeAfraid trope straight.

* From ''WesternAnimation/IsleOfDogs'', followers of the villainous Mayor Koboyashi are shown to ostensibly like cats while the general populace prefers dogs

* ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'', formerly ''VideoGame/DinosaurPlanet,'' has the antagonistic Sharpclaws, a race of anthropomorphic theropods, led by General Scales, an anthropomorphic allosaur despot. Other hazards include non-anthropomorphic tyrannosaurs and Galdon, a bizarre insectoid dinosaurian ''thing'' that also appeared to be some kind of carnosaur hybrid. [[spoiler:The only really evil mammal is [[HijackedByGanon Andross]].]] Fox's allies are pterosaurs, ceratopsians, and other herbivorous dinosaurs. [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers And the odd mammoth or two.]]

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' the antagonists of the third season, Xindi, who plot to destroy humanity with mini-Death Stars because trans-dimensional beings told them humans will destroy their future home world, are split into five species -- the AlwaysChaoticEvil the Reptillians and Insectoids, the much more benevolent Primates and Aboreals (who side with humans near the end of the season after being told they've been lied to by the trans-dimensonal beings), and the neutral Aquatics. There was a sixth species, the Avians, but they went extinct before the series began.

** In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', the main villain is a [[EvilAlbino white]] [[AgentPeacock peacock]], while there are primarily good characters who happen to be a rhinoceros, a crocodile and an ox.

* Inverted with ''Disney/TheLionKing''. The BigBad is a lion, but his species is generally presented as good. [[HeinousHyena Hyenas]], meanwhile, are [[DesignatedVillain ostensibly bad guys]], but it's because they're being starved to death. Individual hyenas come across as LaughablyEvil.

* In the wizard duel scene of ''Disney/TheSwordInTheStone'', Madam Mim turns mostly into traditionally evil animals like a crocodile, a cat, a fox, a rhinoceros, a snake and a dragon (although an elephant and a chicken are also thrown in the mix). Merlin turns into traditionally good ones like a tortoise, a mouse, a rabbit, a caterpillar and a walrus (the only forms that actually have weapons are a crab and a goat).

* In ''Disney/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'', Rats, Moles, Badgers and Toads are good and Weasels and Stoats are bad.
* ''Disney/RobinHood'' has foxes, hens, rabbits, owls, mice, cats, dogs and turtles to be good, whilst Prince John is served by wolves, vultures, boars, rhinoceroses, a crocodile and a snake. Lions don't follow the pattern, with King Richard presented as good and Prince John as evil, because [[KingOfBeasts they are royalty]] and so are operating under a different trope.

* ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' takes traditional animal stereotypes and plays around with them in a way that subverts them as often as plays them straight. Wolves are threatening but have a crippling obsession with howling, sloths are slow but rather clever, and so on. This turns out to be the whole point of the movie, with [[FantasticRacism attitudes among sentient animals being a stand-in for social bias and prejudice]]. For the most part, the various characters are flawed but fundamentally good (or, at least, morally grey) and the main story-line involves a situation where predator animals are reverting to their primitive, savage ways. Some exceptions are [[spoiler:a particularly trashy weasel (Disney really seems to want to hold on to this stereotype), and a gang of criminal sheep (from the BigBad on down being [[AmbitionIsEvil motivated by lust for power]] rather than species).]]

* Subverted in the ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'' games. While many of the villains used Dark-Type and/or Poison-Type Pokémon, the Pokémon themselves are not actually evil. They're just essentially doing what their trainers are telling them to do.
** The Anime features an episode where Ash's Pokémon and Team Rocket's Pokémon are both stranded on a tropical island. It's revealed that Ekans and Koffing are actually quite friendly when they're not busy trying to capture Pikachu and were [[JustFollowingOrders just trying to make their trainers happy.]] In fact, it's only Meowth that's willingly evil (although he's sometimes [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold a jerk with sympathetic qualities]] rather than an outright antagonist, particularly since he's usually LaughablyEvil).

* The Wesens in ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' also tend to be like this; Mauzherz (mice), Genio innocuo (tortoise), [[SweetSheep Seelengut]] (sheeps) and Fuchsbau (foxes) been generally good or peaceful while Klaustreich (cats), Königschlange (snakes) and Gelumcaedus (alligators) to name a few are evil (or at least generally violent). Nevertheless other like Blutbad (wolves) and Bauerschwein (pigs) have both good and bad individuals in a more balanced level.

* Inverted with ''Disney/TheLionKing''. The BigBad is a lion, but his species is generally presented as good. [[TheHyena Hyenas]], meanwhile, are [[DesignatedVillain ostensibly bad guys]], but it's because they're being starved to death. Individual hyenas come across as LaughablyEvil.

* ''Lost World RPG'' retelling of ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' set in the [[Fanfic/TheBridge Amalgam'verse]]: The ''Suchomimus'' is a docile fish eater who remembers her time around human keepers and comes to the expedition team's aid twice after they help her out of a snare trap. By comparison the ''Carnotaurus'' sees the humans as an ideal food source that's too slow to run away and just big enough to be worth hunting, one attacking the team until the ''Suchomimus'' fought it off. Later on the more natural, feathered ''Deinonychus'' inevitably helps save the team from the scaly, psychopathic RaptorAttack modified ''Deinonychus''.

* The Wesens in ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' also tend to be like this; Mauzherz (mice), Genio innocuo (tortoise), Seelengut (sheeps) and Fuchsbau (foxes) been generally good or peaceful while Klaustreich (cats), Königschlange (snakes) and Gelumcaedus (alligators) to name a few are evil (or at least generally violent). Nevertheless other like Blutbad (wolves) and Bauerschwein (pigs) have both good and bad individuals in a more balanced level.

** G1 also had several instances of Autobot teams vs Decepticon teams where the Autobots turned into vehicles while their Decepticon counterparts turned into animals. The most prominent examples was probably the Headmasters: Autobots included Highbrow, a futuristic helicopter, Hosehead, a fire truck, and Chromedome, a car, while Decepticons included Weirdwolf, [[CaptainObvious a wolf]], Mindwipe, a giant vampire bat, and Skullcruncher, a crocodile.