Basically, I have a sci-fi world with intelligent animals. The story is that long after humans disappeared from the Earth, animals eventually become intelligent and made their own society to replace them. One major development in their history is that predators and prey agreed to live in harmony, signing treaties, making laws, and generally working very hard to ensure lasting peace between natural enemies.
One aspect of this is of course prosecuting animals that engage in predation. The way criminal trials work in this world is that every animal has the right to be tried by members of their own species or taxonomic group, who are also responsible for carrying out sentencing. Each animal has a taxonomic government to answer to, so if you’re a cat you are under the jurisdiction of the Feline government, mouse, Rodent government, bird, Avian government, etc. Each animal follows the same basic laws and regulations that all taxonomic governments agree on, things like prohibiting predation is one of these, but each government can also pass taxon-specific legislation, and are also able to determine criminal penalties independently.
The Felines only had their revolution a few years ago, when they overthrew their old kingdom which was very pro-predation, and made a republic that has signed the Interspecies Peace Agreement and is therefore very anti-predation. Because it’s so recent, the Felines also have the harshest punishments for a predation conviction made after the revolution. One count of first degree predation (when you personally kill then eat an animal) is an automatic life in prison without parole, the same penalty as “regular” murder without eating the victim, two or more counts is life in prison unless the prosecution requests for the death penalty at the start of trial and this is authorized by both the judge and the Feline Ministry of Security. Generally, courts stop at two predation convictions even if it’s obvious that the defendant committed more, since that’s enough to either put them away forever with no chance of parole, or kill them. Second degree predation, AKA simple predation, where you eat already dead animals that someone else killed, is treated much less harshly and sentencing options only has fixed term imprisonment possibly with parole, though with restrictions afterward like you can’t work in the government or security-critical industries unless the court lifts those restrictions on a case by case basis. The ISPA lists execution after being convicted beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime that causes the death of two or more other animals as the only exception to the no killing rule, and it can only be done by members of the same species or taxonomic entity, and is also subject to oversight and can even be blocked outright by other ISPA members through the ISPA Inter-Taxon Court, so they also do not have full autonomy on who they can execute, and taxa that have the death penalty much also must make their execution methods (which are mandated to always prioritize minimizing suffering), judicial procedures, and statistics public.
They do also use the threat of execution as a way of getting information about a predation case though. If they catch a Feline who is apart of a predation ring, it’s better than nothing but they’d obviously much rather take down the leader and the entire organization. The Feline Ministry of Security can basically tell the accused “Look, your trial date has been set, the prosecution has requested authorization to use the death penalty from us, and you know what evidence they have on you. We’re still trying to decide if we want to grant that request. It’s up to you and we can’t force you to give us any information, but is there anything you want to tell us about your organization or do you want to gamble with whether you’ll be found guilty or not?” Funnily enough most of these cats don’t care that they’re killing sapient prey animals that have lives and families and stories, but break real fast when it’s their own life on the line.
The Felines (and any ISPA member for that matter) can also arrest other species if they commit a crime on their territory or against a their own animals, but within the Interspecies Peace Agreement member species, animals have the right to stand trial and receive sentencing by their own species or taxon, so most they can do is investigate the crime, form a case with evidence, and then extradite the defendant back and forward their findings to the government that actually has jurisdiction. Most they can do to a non-Feline is detain them, extradite, and then ban them from Feline territory. However, any ISPA non-signatories, AKA predators that are actually predators and eat prey, who engage in predation, either against any ISPA member species anywhere in the world, or on ISPA territory against any animal; are not granted this right (obviously, since if you extradited them back to their own territory they’d be home free). So if you eat a cat or eat a mouse or bird or any other animal on Feline territory, you are dealt with just like any predatory cat by the Feline government regardless of what the laws by your own taxonomic government is.
I should also add that every animal is intelligent/sapient in this world. So predation really would be like murder. No copouts like eating fish or whatever.
Even in universe this is quite controversial even among prey species so I’m not trying to claim that this is the ideal state of the law, but I’m more trying to make sure if this makes sense or not. I also know that they will almost certainly have very different morals and ethics for humans, but then again I’m writing this story for humans so not sure how relevant that actually is. Is the motivation of having a death penalty despite not even allowing animals to eat meat a realistic one?
Makes as much sense as the death penalty for murder does… I mean, it’s essentially the same thing just with an extra step
There’s a moral argument to be had there, but it definitely works in your lore - especially if there are differing views on execution across different taxonomic governments and/or within them
There definitely are differing views. The execution exception in their peace treaty is by far the most controversial part of it. Every now and then there’s a flame war on their equivalent of the internet about whether it should be amended, though most governments are officially neutral on the topic of other taxonomic governments exercising that provision or not.
An intereating bit or lore: The opinions by species is the opposite from what you might imagine. Most of the populations of “predator” ISPA-member species like the Felines tend to support the death penalty for predation, and many of them have it in their legislations, mainly because they see it as a way to “repent” for their “barbaric” past to come down on cases of predation as hard as they can. But many of the “prey” animals are against it because they see it as "well you’re still killing animals and even killing carnivores isn’t right) and also a slight amount of mistrust at predator species that claim to have sworn it off still engaging in killing.
I saw another comment on your same post in another community mentioning obligate predators, like felines…
Have all animals in this universe evolved to be omnivorous or herbivorous? If not, then how do they survive without consuming prey?
Ah yes! This is actually a big part of the story I have for this world and plays a huge part in its recent developments and plot-relevant history!
Dietary enzyme supplements are taken by all predator animals, so that they can eat plant based food instead of the flesh of their comrades. There are different formulations for different species, but generally they get more complex and with more advanced biochemistry the closer you get to the obligate carnivores, or the animals that have evolved to only eat meat.
If dietary enzymes don’t work for you, there are other options like nutrient fortified foods and plant-based meat replacements, as well as direct nutrient supplements. Kind of like Beyond Meat or vegan cat food we have today.
They also have something called “synthetic meat” that is essentially a generalized animal tissue with the exact same proteins, fats, vitamins, and other nutrients found in natural meat, but all synthesized artificially and minus the cellular structure. Resembles something like pâté. Though, it’s not that common as it’s difficult and inefficient to produce (a protein synthesizer makes enough artificial meat for one animal in the same time it takes to make enough enzyme supplement for over a hundred animals, simply because you only need a small amount of enzyme to produce a large amount of usable nutrients in the body, and protein synthesizers are complex and expensive machines to run), and is only really used by carnivores who due to medical conditions cannot take any nutrient or enzyme supplements, it’s a fallback because it basically is chemically identical to meat.
I could imagine after a disaster they would be forced to eat each other to survive without all these supplements. A horrifying side-story perhaps? A town cutoff by rock slide has devolved into chaos…
That’s actually a major concern and very active threat for them. Another one is attacks on the supply chain, which, there are powers outside their borders who are pro-predation and see these technologies (and carnivores not eating meat in general) as a major threat. They take a great care to strengthen and safeguard their supply chain and to make sure every animal in their jurisdiction has access to these.
Are there “neutral” countries? Not in line with the pact or predatory?
Yes, there are animals that don’t sign the ISPA (or has signed a less comprehensive treaty) but are still not predatory. Mainly because the ISPA is more like vegan socialism as opposed to just veganism, and has provosions like providing essential resources to animals and other stuff.
You’ve really thought this out. Massive props, I’d definitely read something about this world
Thank you!