Do the Ponies not consider themselves animals?

[Azureth 687]

I was watching Fluttershy leans in and it got me thinking, with all the talk about animals do the Ponies not view themselves as animals? Or if so, a particularly intelligent animal?

[FirePuppy 735]

That's what makes the show called "My Little Pony". Otherwise, it wouldn't be that way now, would it?

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,688]

With the ponies being the human equivalents basically of that world, they most likely go about it the same way a lot of humans do. Humans are animals, but a lot of people will never accept that fact. Granted, the ponies probably don't view other animals as inferior and lesser beings like humans do.

[PiratePony 8,475]

Nope. Ponies are ponies, and the animals are animals.

Same thing with humans - we're animals on a biological level alone. The human/animal separation is the same in the pony world. When Flutters says "the animals" nopony is going to say "oh you mean ponies too?"

 

If I say "the animals" - nobody is going to think I mean any human in the area. Like the Elephant Man once famously said "I am not an animal - I am a human being!"

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Aren't we all animals?

[Babyyoshi309 1,829]

Humans are animals, but we do not call ourselves animals. 

[Kaneki 1,073]

In the sense of how humans don't consider themselves not (but are), I think since pony is the majority in the pony world, they don't think of themselves as such.

[sweetolebob18 728]

I'll go with the majority.  When Ponies say "animal" they mean "lesser animal" (except for Fluttershy)

[Zel 56]

Just a reminder that in "Castle Sweet Castle" Fluttershy aknoweldge that her and Twillight are animals too. So basically consider themselves like animals, just like us humans do, but when they talks about "animals" they usually refer to the animals with less "intellect" than them juste like humans in our world say "animals" to talk about all the other animal species (even if Angel is clearly shown to have as much of a conscience and an intellect as ponies for example).

Edited October 3, 2017 by Zel

[RavenholmZombie 1,330]

Ponies, being intelligent creatures, are aware of the fact that they animals, biologically speaking. However, when they refer to animals, they probably mean "creatures of lesser intelligence."

 

Humans do the same thing, we claim to be better than other animals because we have civilization, language, culture, the sciences, and so on, things other animals on this planet do not have the intelligence to comprehend.

[Fluttershy Friend 25,447]

Other animals are shown as much ess intelligence and deprived of speech. Fluttershy is only pony who udenrstand their speech. So I'm sure that ponies thinking about themselves like humans in our world. Anyway truth of course is different.

@Lance Shield He, he almost the same post.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Fluttershy Friend

[EpicEnergy 23,223]

They are like humans in the sense that they have a conscience and intelligence, so I think it would be unreasonable for a pony to refer to themselves as animals.

[Splashee 28,566]

Fluttershy’s bunny is intelligent enough to not be considered an animal 

and Thorax is a bug 

 

ponies are simply “ponies”. 
 

(and my iPad doesn’t do sentences very well)

[Tom Gallagher 33,593]

The dominant species wouldn’t consider themselves an animal? 

[Steve Piranha 29,429]

Very unlikely, since most humans don’t see as animals ourselves (what else can we be anyway, fungi ?)

Edited May 22, 2022 by Steve Piranha

[Justin_Case001 4,902]

They see themselves the same way that we see ourselves.  I.e. we know that we're animals of a sort as well.  We're mammals, too, just smarter than the rest.  The ponies have no misconceptions about their species, but they wouldn't lump themselves in with the animal animals that live in the wild, or that they keep as pets.  The same goes for all the other sapient, intelligent species in their world.

[ExplosionMare 18,079]

If they did, they wouldn't be holding jobs or going to school.

[Sparklefan1234 172,079]

I think so. I think it's weird that dogs, ducks and other animals don't speak like the ponies do.

I have a theory that  cows used to speak until Starlight Glimmer used the Staff of Sameness on them. 

[dead account 2,711]

On 2022-05-22 at 5:30 PM, Justin_Case001 said:

They see themselves the same way that we see ourselves.  I.e. we know that we're animals of a sort as well.  We're mammals, too, just smarter than the rest.  The ponies have no misconceptions about their species, but they wouldn't lump themselves in with the animal animals that live in the wild, or that they keep as pets.  The same goes for all the other sapient, intelligent species in their world.

Couldn't have said it better.

[Evil Pink One 13,507]

It's the same for us... Do humans not consider themselves animals? It depends from person to person.... May perhaps they have the same logic.