ANIMALS AREN’T MONSTERS
See the linked rant above.
ANIMALS AREN’T ANGELS
The other end of the spectrum from depicting animals as so vicious that they’re actively villainous, some people go full-on idealistic in their depictions of animals, carnivores included. Indeed, favorites of this type of writer tend to be large majestic carnivores like wolves and big cats and orcas, along with the more attractive herbivore species like herds of wild horses or flocks of swans, perhaps “cute” ones too like bunnies; rarely are slugs, weevils, weasels, pigs, or “vermin” type animals given much praise. Much ado will be made by these writers about how nature is good because it’s natural, how all species live in harmony, how humans should imitate animals in all things and how the world would be so much better that way, how animals are so much better than nasty rotten evil people and would NEVER commit acts like theft, rape, or cruelty to children.
What a bunch of malarkey.
This is JUST as wrong and dangerous a mentality as the notion that some animals are consciously evil. While I’d much prefer to defend maligned animals (especially very misunderstood and unjustly demonized ones like sharks), the fact is sometimes it’s also necessary to point out that lots of commit atrocious acts that have nothing to do with hunting for food. Plenty of male animals will kill the young of their own species to bring the females into heat again so THEY can mate with them. Lions are most famous for this, but you see it many other species such as zebras, grizzly bears, and more. Ducks, otters, seals, dolphins, and a certain type of penguin are all HORRIFICALLY rapey to a degree I won’t detail here, but it’s absolutely disturbing. And with how smart dolphins are, they damned well likely know what they’re doing too. It’s normal for hamsters to devour their young when under stressed, or just nibble off a limb or two if peckish for some protein. Hyenas begin killing each other as babies, and only a percentage make it to adulthood because of that. And speaking of killing/eating babies, while it’s true that predators typically pick off the old/weak/sick from the herd, they ALSO very commonly go for the cute little babies too.
And then there’s the stuff that isn’t “evil” by human standards, but also isn’t majestic, glamorous, or inspiring either. Chimps throw their poop. Male giraffes drink the urine of female giraffes to determine if they are at the optimal point in their cycle for breeding, and will often headbutt the abdomen of the female to try to force her to urinate. The koala population is riddled with chlamydia, and they fight each other all the time, leaving each other covered in scars and open wounds, which only helps to spread said chlamydia. Hippos spin their tails to spray their poop all over the place.
Animals aren’t evil, but they’re not good either, and certainly not angelic morally superior beings. They’re animals, and morality just doesn’t apply to them. They’re amazing, beautiful, wonderful, and inspiring. . .and also gross, nasty, and frequently pretty fucked up.
ANIMALS AREN’T ALL DOGS
Dogs are the animal that most people are most familiar with, and many people mistakenly use their behavior as the baseline default for dealing with other animals. Heck, one of the most common reasons that many people seem to dislike cats, in my personal opinion, is that they’re expecting doglike behavior from them and take it as “unfriendliness” or “aloofness” or “snobbery” or whatever else when cats don’t act like dogs, and in fact have a totally different communication style because THEY ARE DIFFERENT ANIMALS. See: People being upset that cats will show you their bellies and then bite you if you touch it, because when a DOG does it, it means the dog WANTS it touched, so therefore the cat is maliciously tricking you. . .instead of you not understand that a cat isn’t a dog and the same signals mean different things from it.
This expectation often carries over into fiction. Horses, cows, rabbits, big cats, and reptiles all get this treatment. Wolves and foxes get hit particuliarly hard with it, the reasoning being that since they’re members of the canine family, they must act just like domesticated dogs, especially if they’re raised from birth as a pet. . .no, no they do not. They have some similarities, but they are absolutely NOT the same animal, and don’t at all have the same urge to please humans that drives so much dog behavior. This also frequently carries over into wolf-based fictional creatures like werewolves, in which case my opinion depends on how it’s presented. If it’s presented as coming from “natural wolf behavior” then no. But if it’s like in Discworld, where werewolves act doggish because dogs are a mix of wolf and human, that angle I absolutely love!
Speaking of fictional creatures, I see dragons depicted like this a good deal. Ditto for dinosaurs and other extinct animals like smilodons. While TECHNICALLY we don’t know what extinct animals acted like, and TECHNCALLY a fictional species can behave any way you like, it seems a little lazy to me to just go “it’s a really big dog” and also detracts, in my opinion, from the “wow” factor of these creatures. If you want to write about owning a dragon or a dinosaur that’s domesticated, putting thought into how such a creature would behave and why will take awhile, yes, but the result will feel probably feel far more realistic, immersive, and interesting for your reader. After all, horses and cats are domesticated too, and THEY don’t act like dogs; why would an animal that’s even LESS related to canines do so?
Dogs got to be the way they are through literally THOUSANDS of years of selective breeding by humans. They’re an extremely unique animal. While depicting realistic animal behavior isn’t necessary in works that are aimed at children or are meant to have a more lighthearted tone, when it comes to works that are trying to take a more serious approach (even in a fantastical setting) accuracy is better.
ANIMALS AREN’T HUMAN
This one seems obvious, right? But as with “Animals Aren’t All Dogs” and “Animals Aren’t Angels” a lot of writers will treat animals as if they’re essentially humans wearing furry skins, with humans morals and values. Again, as stated at the beginning, I don’t mean “talking animal” stories like Beatrix Potter stories or The Wind in the Willows, which are tales in which the animals are very deliberately anthropomorphized, and do things like wearing waistcoats and having tea. Or films like “Oliver & Company” and “All Dogs Go To Heaven” where the animals do speak (even though humans can’t understand them) and have very human personalities. That’s a genre unto itself and it’s fine, and I in fact *love* all the works I just gave as examples. They’re not what I’m talking about.
I mean when our heroine in a fantasy book a wolf familiar, or a trained falcon, or a horse. And unlike the aforementioned stories, this is supposed to be an animal that is no different from the wolves and falcons and horses in the real world, with perhaps some enhanced intelligence. And yet, this animal has a very human attitude towards the world, and not only understands human concepts easily but shares them. The wolf, rather than wondering why their human is so against being seen in the nude, will leap to attack any man who dares sneak a peak without ever even asking why the idea is attractive to a human man in the first place. The horse, whose natural inclination is to just piss and shit wherever it happens to be when the urge hits, acts ashamed upon dumping a load in the palace foyer. The falcon, whose diet is based upon small mammals, passes up the cute sweet bunnies easily available to it and only feeds on mean, nasty weasels and stoats.
You COULD explain this by saying, if they have a mental bond (which is common in fantasy) that the human’s feelings and desires are influencing the animal. That’s a pretty solid explanation for all these examples. But that’s rarely the case. In a lot of stories, this is just presented as the animal’s natural behavior in a work that otherwise veers very realistic (as opposed to, say, a Disney film like “Tangled” in which the horse behaves in some unrealistic ways, but it fits the setting tone)
Animals don’t share human values and their behaviors aren’t always palatable to humans, as discussed before. Some are; many people admire animals that will fight viciously for their young, because a parent defending their child is congruent with our own values. But a great many animals will abandon, kill, and even EAT their own young if their baby is weak, sick, or deformed in some way. Some animals, such as the quokka, are even content to let a predator have their offspring because hey, they can always make more if they survive. This is appalling to many people, because it’s very much NOT in accordance with our values. But it doesn’t make these animals bad. And there’s no reason an animal would adopt human values just because it hangs around a human enough (I had a cat for years, he did NOT stop killing small animals just because I hated it) or because something upsets the human they care about. Ask ANY pet owner---and pets are typically domesticated animals that are easily trained, so imagine how much more removed from humanity a typically wild animal will be, even one raised in captivity.
I’d like to see more “tame” wolves and wildcats in fiction that don’t obey their tamer’s every command, but do things that REAL pet wolves and wildcats will do in real life. Like, say, go after smaller creatures when tempted, like a noblewoman’s nearby cat or the live chickens for sale at market, and cause their owner some real trouble because of it. Or worse, direct physical or emotional damage to the hero---like the bear cub that the hero nurses back to health kills his beloved dog! I’d also like to see some telepathic animal companions that don’t actually give a shit that their master was stood up at the ball, because they don’t have a concept of human romance. They may feel sympathy as far as they are able that their human is sad, but their advice probably is just “mate with someone else” And I’d like to see our heroine’s beautiful magical white stallion kill a foal in front of her because it was born with a bad leg, and then act like nothing happened while she reels in horror lamenting how she could have healed it.
Animals are wonderful. Animals are fascinating. Animals are frequently in many ways better than people. They’re also frequently horrific, gruesome, and, to our perspective, disgusting and cruel. In many cases, the same animal is BOTH. And this isn’t bad, because they’re NOT humans. Don’t make them have to behave like humans in order to be treated as “good” by the story, because that’s not a concept that should be applied to animals in the first place. Let animals act like animals.
ANIMALS AREN’T MACHINES
Animals have to eat. They have to shit. They have to rest. Yet horses in fantasy never seem to tire, they never have any problems with grass colic or eat plants that are dangerous for them, they never had any quirks or hangups, they’re immediately trusting and obedient to a new rider the moment they’re obtained, they only get injured or spook at the single most dramatic moments when the story requires, and they certainly never take a dump UNLESS it’s at the perfect comedic moment to punctuate a point or humiliate a villain.
I’m pretty sure these horses are robots. Similarly, I’m pretty sure that the big glamorous dogs and majestic panthers and clever cats and tiny dragons that accompany so many heroes and who never trouble their master for food, or attention, or cause any problems, or run away during long stays outdoors, and may go unmentioned for chapters on end despite supposedly being at their master’s side the whole time. . .are all actually animatronic stuffed toys and puppets.
You don’t need to derail the story every time an animal goes to the bathroom, of course. It’s the same reason that you don’t need to mention every time a character does that; it’s unnecessary, we can assume it happens. But in the case of critters, it does make it seem a little more real to work something like that in once in awhile. It reminds the reader this is a flesh-and-blood creature, not a moving doll. It makes the story more immersive, and it can also add drawbacks to animals that are useful or impressive power fantasies. For instance, a pet dragon is super cool, but it delays travel for days while it’s shedding its skin. Not to mention the cost to feed it must be MASSIVE, and if you just let it go hunting on its own, someone will probably shoot it! Let your hero worry about these things, and have to find solutions for it. It doesn’t need to consume the story, and in fact doing so will probably annoy the reader because they want to get back to the action, but a mention of this kind of thing here and there will go a long way.
