I've been going over the episodes as of late and there were a few things that caught my attention. From what we've seen, most everypony on the show is vegetarian - eating things such as apples, hay, flowers, pastries, or some kind of variation thereof. :ahh: However, mentions or implications of meat as food have popped up from time to time... In the episode "Fall Weather Friends", Pinkie Pie talks about hot dog eating competitions with Spike during the Running of the Leaves event, mentioning that she prefers mustard over ketchup. Applejack is seen keeping pigs in "The Show Stoppers" - what could she be keeping them around for? During the brunch at Sugarcube Corner for Princess Celestia in "A Bird in the Hoof", Applejack sits at a table that appears to have a ham sandwich on it. I guess it could be written off by saying that any implication of meat would be vegetarian meat (i.e. tofu) and that the pigs are being kept around for some other reason. Oh, and let's not bring up that fic in this discussion, please...
What Fic? Rainbow Factory? Okay I won't mention Rainbow Factory. We have to remember that this is a kids show and that the creators probably didn't think people were going to notice little mistakes like that. But since most of us are intelligent adults, they were wrong. IRL as far as I know horses are vegetarians, but who is to say that Equestrian ponies have to be, in fact they don't even look like real ponies, (see how ugly they look in g1 and be thankful for this) Since they are not real ponies, to me they are a fictional mythological creature called pony that could eat spectra for all we know. Whoops sorry another mention of that fic you didn't want to hear about sorry.
Hmm, I'm pretty sure the FiM creators didn't mean for them to eat meat, rather having them eat like normal ponies ^_^ But I don't think he's talking about Rainbow Factory... more of Cupcakes.... (I'll stop talking about it now, sorry Standby+) But yeah, let's go for the tofu subsitute thing... tofurkey anypony? XD
I knew he was talking about Cupcakes, it was obvious. I just said Rainbow Factory to be ironically funny. Uh oh, now I mentioned it. I'm so sorry. Thanapony started it, blame him.
Back onto the discussion in hand: They are quiet a few mistakes throughout the series which the target audience would notice less than us. The pigs and chickens Apple Jack and Fluttershy keep most likely derive from from another problem, personifying the ponies. Apple Jack lives on a far, what do you find on farms? Pigs. That's it! That's most likely the reason they put them in, they didn't expect people to ask "Why".
well as vegetarian myself, I can say (I've been vegetarian since 15): - there are vegetarian hot dogs (they look and taste like regular ones, but no meat in them) - pigs are actually quite intelligent animals, and they are very good pets actually. - as well as hot dogs, you can find vegetarian ham (made of seitan or tofu). that's my explanation. also in "Over The Barrel" Pinkie Pie explicitly in her song says that they are vegetarians.
I think I read somewhere that Lauren Faust told everyone that the pigs were kept to hunt for truffles... My theory...it's a kids show...it's fun to think about it though...
Tofu dogs? Also note that their hay sandwhiches (shown in Ticket Master) very closely resemble normal sandwhiches As for the pigs, well I just don't think they ever figured anyone would look into the implications of that haha
I think it would be extremely funny if there was an episode based around this. All the ponies discover where their food is coming from, and almost destroy Orchard Farm in a riot. I could just imagine AppleJack saying: "Where did you think hot dogs came from, apples?"
Ponies will eat meat, but it has to be magically created. I think there are no ponies with the job of butcher. Without hands, imagine how they'd have to do their job. Just a guess.
