In my world with intelligent, non-anthro animals trying to live in harmony, a lot of the terrible takes revolve around the banning of predation in some territories while other territories legally enforce predation. Or, even in the territories where different species do live in peace with each other, there are bad takes on the roles of different animals in society. Here are a few common ones:

“In Feline Territory, which explicitly bans predation but neighbours several territories that encourage it, the most common source of predation related criminal charges come not from cats themselves breaking the law and eating other animals, but from animals living in other territories getting caught trying to bring meat (usually referred to as ‘prey’ but not to be confused with ‘prey animals’ which are species that a territory considers to be food) with them when crossing the border. So why don’t the Felines just provide a trash can at their customs facility where animals can get rid of their prey and avoid getting arrested?”

• The customs facility of a given territory is entirely within its own borders, so by the time you get far enough to throw something in one of their trash cans, you’ve already broken the law by smuggling prey past the border.

• The Feline Ministry of Security wants to catch you with prey so they can secure a criminal conviction. Why should they give you any leniency when the very first thing you do upon entering their territory is break one of their most fundamental laws? This is especially true for animals like the Felines where they used to be predators, which means they have more to prove to the other non-predation species by having absolutely zero tolerance for predation in their territory.

• It would put non-predation territories in an extremely awkward position by forcing them to dispose of your prey for you.

• How fucking hard is it to just not bring prey with you when you intend to cross into a non-predation territory? It’s not like they keep their non-predation status a secret.

“How can you convict me of predation when it’s my hunting instinct talking and I can’t resist it?”

• Because you can. You chose not to. Science is very clear that all animals are sapient in this world, and sapience to them is defined as being able take control of your instincts and not letting them control you. If the Felines, once infamous for being the best hunters, has become one of the most anti-predation territories in the world, what excuse do you have?

• And if you really can’t resist your instincts, then you’re defective and absolutely should be locked away for public safety. Or another way of looking at it, you’re not considered sapient and not capable of participating in a society of sapient animals.

• (For context: The response to this is particularly harsh in their society because it’s almost always the first excuse an animal tries when they get caught for predation, and everyone else is sick of hearing it.)

“There are a lot of small songbirds working as pilots in Feline Territory, but I noticed that they are almost always scheduled to fly during the day while cat pilots are scheduled to fly at night. I thought that when the Felines signed the interspecies peace treaty, they officially became a multi-species society and any other animal living in their territory has the same rights as any cat! So how is their pilot scheduling fair? Shouldn’t every animal rotate between working every shift? Are the Felines racist?”

• They are a multi-species society and any other animal living there does have the same rights as a cat. Including the right to a work schedule that fits your natural bio clock if your job is safety critical, like flying a hovercraft.

• Most Felines are noctournal and most Avians are diurnal, and the point of a multi-species society is to take advantage of different species’ natural advantages while having other species cover their natural disadvantages. It’s also why there are a lot of avian pilots in Feline territory, a lot of them apply for that career because they are already naturally suited for it, and the Feline Ministry of Transportation isn’t allowed to discriminate between species and only hire Felines. The only requirement is that you live in Feline Territory.

• What wouldn’t be fair is if they did force every animal to do every shift, including ones that go against their bio clock. That’s also a fast track ticket to a fatigue related hovercraft crash killing hundreds or thousands of animals.

• If you want to go against your bio clock in your work schedule, you’re still allowed to do that, just not for safety critical jobs where accidentally dozing off can mean literally fucking dying and killing others.

“Felines are obligate carnivores and normally has to eat meat, but there is a pharmaceutical called a Dietary Enzyme Supplement which supplies artificially engineered enzymes to their digestive tracts, which allows them to digest plant based food and directly synthesize nutrients only found in meat in their own bodies. The Feline Ministry of Health manufactures these pharmaceuticals, and you can’t live without them without breaking the law if you’re a cat, so obviously the Feline Government is forcibly drugging their citizens!”

• No one is forcing you to take Dietary Enzyme Supplements. The Feline government bans predation but has no laws saying what alternative you have to take.

• They’re not even the only way for a cat to not eat prey, they’re just the easiest and therefore most common. You can also get regular nutritional supplements that directly supply nutrients not found in plant based food. You can even get fully synthetic meat analogues that contain all the nutrients found in meat. You can also intentionally starve yourself to death if you were determined to do that, the government can’t stop you.