History Main / SapientEatSapient

* Many ''{{Roguelikes}}'' such as ''VideoGame/{{Nethack}}'' have a disturbing tendency of allowing you to eat the fresh corpses of sapient enemies.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

** Two sketches in "The World" points out a consequence of a world where EverythingTalks: ''all'' the food isn't just made from living things, it's alive ''[[LetsMeetTheMeat while]]'' being eaten. One centers on Gumball's lunch acting as an army unit "in enemy territory" [[HumansAreCthulhu who he mercilessly eats without any challenge]]. Conversely, the other sketch has Richard microwaving a sausage, and it's ''really'' into it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', all non-anthropomorphic animals are shown to be sentient. Though that doesn't Nemo from trying to hunt a bird in "It Came From Beyond". In "Flea to You and Me", an oxpecker attempts to eat Pepe the flea and only lets him go when he entertains him and the other oxpeckers with a circus act.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Problem with Popplers": Humans discover what they at first think is a delicious new meal and instead are the infants of a sapient alien species. The adults of which are big enough to swallow a human whole, and which happens to be their plan for revenge.
--> '''Lrr:''' Whoa, I think there was something funny in that hippie.

** ''Henery Hawk'', plus any incidental family, are always trying to catch WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn or the chickens on his farm for dinner.
** ''WesternAnimation/SylvesterTheCatAndTweetyBird''. Tweety taw a puddy tat, and will take the time to banter with him before evading being devoured.
** ''The Tasmanian Devil (Taz)''. Being an ExtremeOmnivore, Taz can and will consider making a meal out of any of the other toons that cross his path, be they man, bunny, duck, or otherwise.
** ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner''. Wile E. has tried to eat Bugs Bunny on several occasions.
* "WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic" has this due to having [[NearlyNormalAnimal most animals being sapient]] (to the point a spider may present a bouqet, or prospective pets compete in talent shows, despite some like the dog Winona acting completely normal) with natural predation in effect ''as well as'' there being predators out there who can outright talk and have no qualms about making a meal out of ponies (a particular chimera, even when presented with fresh pies, much preferred "filly fondue"). This is pounded in especially in "She Talks to Angel", where Fluttershy, who SpeaksFluentAnimal, calls a meeting of animals in her nature sanctuary to agree to a rule of not eating each other there, then ends up mind-swapped with a frustrated Angel Bunny (who loves the opportunity to actually talk to ponies), and is very soon dodging a hungry bird of prey.

* ''WesternAnimation/SittingDucks'': The alligators and the ducks they prey on have human-level intelligence and live in their own modern towns. The plot centers around Bill and Aldo, a duck and an alligator who actually manage to become friends after the former is almost eaten by the latter. Aldo only manages to stay friends with Bill by restricting his diet to fish [[NoCartoonFish which are apparently non-sapient.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' one of Gargamel's goals (aside from using them to create gold) is to eat the Smurfs.

** In "One Coarse Meal", it is revealed that Plankton is terrified of Pearl, fearing that she will eat him.
** In "Shanghaied", the Flying Dutchman decides that [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick aren't making good crewmen after all, so he decides to just eat them. Even when they magically wish him into being a vegetarian, he just turns them into fruits to make good on his threat. On the other hand, in the alternate scenes where Squidward/Patrick gets the last wish, [[spoiler:the episode ends with [[DownerEnding Spongebob, Squidward and Patrick eaten by the Flying Dutchman]].]]
** In ''A Pal for Gary'', [=SpongeBob's=] new pet becomes so aggressive he tries to eat Gary.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011'' has mentions of {{Fishmen}} eating {{Catfolk}}, Catfolk eating Fishmen, {{Lizardfolk}} eating Catfolk, and ManiacMonkeys eating BirdPeople.
* Zigzagged on ''WesternAnimation/TimonAndPumbaa''. Their usual diet consists of non-sapient, non-anthropomorphized bugs, but occasionally they have no qualms about eating talking insects. However, one episode has the duo meeting a talking (and singing) snail, with Timon stating that they can't eat him because of it. Timon and Pumbaa spend the rest of the episode keeping the snail from being eaten by other predators.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'':
** Two sketches in "The World" points out a consequence of a world where EverythingTalks: ''all'' the food isn't just made from living things, it's alive ''[[LetsMeetTheMeat while]]'' being eaten. One centers on Gumball's lunch acting as an army unit "in enemy territory" [[HumansAreCthulhu who he mercilessly eats without any challenge]]. Conversely, the other sketch has Richard microwaving a sausage, and it's ''really'' into it.
** Despite all the "people" of Elmore being {{Funny Animal}}s, them eating each other is played for laughs a few times. Anton, a piece of toast, has been eaten by his classmates [[TheyKilledKennyAgain at least twice]].
* Played horrifyingly straight in ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' which has ''no'' non-anthropomorphic animals, not even insects or fish. The solution, at least in modern day, is to keep what are essentially {{Slave Race}}s of normally sapient bird, cow, fish and other food species on farms, drugging them from birth to prevent them from developing intelligence beyond what real animals have. What makes this even more bizarre is that this has nothing to do with FantasticRacism, as other members of those exact same species are considered full citizens with civil rights. Since the show doesn't really focus on the WorldOfFunnyAnimals setting outside of the episode that shows this, there was never an in-depth explanation for this.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' takes place in a world populated by {{Funny Animal}}s. One of the main characters is a steer named Heffer who was [[AdoptTheFood "adopted" by a family of wolves]] with the intention of eating him. But while they were fattening the baby Heffer up, they grew attached to him and took him in as one of their own. He was even nicknamed "Steak" by his adopted father. Despite his species, his family expects him to partake in their wolf traditions, one of which was "bringing an elk for dinner". Heffer instead starts dating an anthropomorphic elk and brings her home to have dinner with as opposed to eating her like his parents expected.
* A problem in ''WesternAnimation/KipoAndTheAgeOfWonderbeasts''. Some animals are sapient, some are not. Wolf interrogates the pig when she catches it; she won't eat things that can speak.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'', the Pridelands function on a sort of tradeoff; the herds let local predators hunt them in specific sectors at specific times, and in return those locals keep all other predators away from the herds all the time. Everyone is cavalier about the arrangement [[note]]in Fuli the cheetah's ImageSong, she runs around a herd just for fun- presumably in one of the 'safe' sectors- and they're not even remotely concerned about her presence[[/note]], although it makes governing the area very difficult, because citizens not being where they're supposed to be can be a matter of life and death. Making sure nobody cheats the system is an exhausting job that requires five animals working full-time.
* "WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic" has this due to having [[NearlyNormalAnimal most animals being sapient]] (to the point a spider may present a bouqet, or prospective pets compete in talent shows, despite some like the dog Winona acting completely normal) with natural predation in effect ''as well as'' there being predators out there who can outright talk and have no qualms about making a meal out of ponies (a particular chimera, even when presented with fresh pies, much preferred "filly fondue"). This is pounded in especially in "She Talks to Angel", where Fluttershy, who SpeaksFluentAnimal, calls a meeting of animals in her nature sanctuary to agree to a rule of not eating each other there, then ends up mind-swapped with a frustrated Angel Bunny (who loves the opportunity to actually talk to ponies), and is very soon dodging a hungry bird of prey.
* ''WesternAnimation/Primal2019'' is set in a fantasy version of history where many animals demonstrate human levels of intelligence, from giant bats living in symbiosis with a monster-sized spider to mammoths with advanced ceromonial burials to ''T. rexes'' that can plan, reason and emote. The show makes little distinction between these animals and non-sapient ones, with predation being treated as a brutal but expected part of daily life.

* ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland'': The overarching antagonists are demons who eat human meat, with the main characters being children from a PeopleFarm who discovered this fact and are trying to find safety. However, humans and demons can interact and understand each other just fine, and it's shown in a flashback that during TheGreatOffscreenWar that the two of them are on equal footing in terms of strength, intelligence, weaponry, etc. After the humans' escape, they run into a pair of demons, Sung-Joo and Musica, who don't eat humans due to their religion, who help them get to safety. Although Sung-Joo's motives are to make humans wild game again, and thus be able to eat them. (Their religion requires them to eat wild food.) Musica's assistance is more sincere, and it's implied that she's never had human meat.

* [[PredatorTurnedProtector Protecting the victim of a violent crime]], like rape or murder - [[AssholeVictim the aggressor ends up in a stomach]].

!!'''[[{{AssociationFallacy}} Please]] note that all ''sapient'' animals are people, but not all ''sentient'' animals are people.'''

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tomcooksjerry.png]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'': Tom's motivation is usually just to ''catch'' Jerry, usually because it's what his owners expect of a cat, though eating him has been an implied as a possible result of their endless game of wits.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': After being picked up by Yondu Odonta and his Ravager faction, Peter Quill was routinely threatened by Yondu to be fed to the others since, "they ain't never tasted Terran before." In the second movie, Yondu tries to tell Quill that he was just kidding about it, but Quill had halfway believed him at his word.