For context, I have a science-fantasy world with intelligent, non-anthro animals trying to live in peace with each other. A major problem is of course what the carnivores eat, and their solution is something called Dietary Enzyme Supplements, which carnivores take in order to supply artificial, carefully engineered digestive enzymes that allow them to digest plant matter and directly synthesize essential nutrients that would otherwise only be found in meat inside their own digestive tracts. It’s something that works really well for its intended purpose and that they’re really proud of, and I talk more about their history with solving the predation problem here if you’re interested.
For the species, taxa, and factions that have committed to banning predation and having predator and prey live in harmony, dietary enzyme supplements are typically freely available and a guaranteed right under their constitution, along with plant based food in general. Dietary enzymes are ubiquitous and work really well for their intended purpose, and represent the very bleeding edge of their chemistry and nutrition science prowess.
The most advanced dietary enzymes, those intended for obligate carnivores like cats, contain trace amounts of a special quasi-element called Intium as part of how they work, which is also a really powerful substance that power most of their super advanced sci-fi tech. However, due to how versatile and powerful it is, Intium is also extremely dangerous if misused, so it is heavily regulated by the government, and the only real “consumer” product that contains it are those obligate carnivore dietary enzymes. The next most accessible source is hovercraft fuel and the internal components of hovercraft engines, both of which are prohibitively expensive and require an aviation related license to purchase, while dietary enzymes are both free at the point of access and anyone can just go into a grocery store and take them without anyone else batting an eye.
The vast majority of animals that need dietary enzymes do not abuse their free access to them, since there’s no benefit in taking more than the required dose and they’re just flavourless pills that most animals don’t just stuff their faces with. However, this is where amateur chemistry enthusiasts come in, after a post on a science forum showing how to extract Intium from ATDP, which are the dietary enzyme supplements most commonly used by Felines. The process is pretty simple, basically just burn the pills at a very high temperature and in a high oxygen environment to convert the proteins and other support chemicals into carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, etc, and you’re left with a solid residue of mostly Intium oxide, which can then be further processed into pure Intium. This is technically legal since the government doesn’t regulate what exactly you do with dietary enzymes once you have it, but the problem is that ATDP, while free to use, still has a high production cost, and only contain minuscule amounts of Intium. A domestic cat for example typically takes one pill of ATDP per week, with the enzymes attaching to the lining of their digestive tracts to prevent the still perfectly functional enzymes from being expelled out the other end after one cycle of digestion and being wasted. However, an unlicensed chemist smelting pills to extract Intium can go through literally thousands of pills in a few hours, and those pills are paid for almost entirely by Feline tax revenue so neither the Feline government nor the Feline population in general are happy about this. Of course the safety risks of working with Intium apply as well, including pretty severe explosion risks, but the amounts they extract are so small that it’s hardly a public safety hazard so much as a public burden as they destroy tens of thousands dollars worth of dietary enzymes just to extract ten dollars worth of Intium. The Intium is not the expensive part of those pills, the expensive parts are the carefully engineered and synthesized proteins that surround the Intium. After a few incidents of particularly brazen and entitled animals (who notably weren’t even carnivores and had no biological need for dietary enzymes, certainly not the super advanced obligate carnivore versions that contain Intium) cleared out multiple grocery store shelves for their Intium extraction hustle and went viral on their internet, attracting intense public shaming with both predator and prey calling them selfish and misusing public resources, they realized that it was a massive problem and a policy change was needed to ensure fair access to this extremely important resource.
The most obvious and immediately effective solution is just to implement some kind of rationing system, where instead of a shelf filled with boxes of dietary enzymes that any animal can take, they move them behind the pharmacy counter and require ID to obtain, where they’ll check both whether you’re actually a species that requires the enzyme and also use a centralized database that tracks how much you’re taking per month. However, again, only a tiny minority of animals abuse the free access to dietary enzymes to do things they really shouldn’t be doing anyway, so it would feel like a massive burden for the rest of the carnivore populations who literally depend on access to dietary enzymes to survive in a society where predation is banned. It would also preclude things like animals who don’t need dietary enzymes getting them for their carnivore friends since they were going to the store anyway, or even things like losing your box of dietary enzymes and potentially getting denied replacements if they only allow animals to obtain them at the specific dosages they need, nor would they be able to stock up some dietary enzymes in their own nests and dens in case of supply chain issues. Not to mention the costs associated with implementing and maintaining such a rationing system which will also be passed onto the general public, potentially siphoning funds away from other public projects like housing and transportation, or just having less money to make more dietary enzymes. Free and easy access to both plant based food and dietary enzymes have been such staples in their society that they really don’t to abandon it just because a few animals don’t follow the rules, so they’re looking for an alternative that lets them have their dietary enzymes and eat it too.
What do you think? Is their only hope to just start rationing dietary enzymes? If you were a policy maker in this world, how would you address this issue?
If i were a policy maker in this world i would resign from my position, encourage animals to eat dead animals around them and to research more in nutrition and evolution.
Funny you should say that because that used to be somewhat common way back in ye olden days in this world! However, it is now banned since they have more than sufficient technology and means to allow even obligate carnivores like cats to not eat any meat at all while still being healthy so they have no real need to eat carrion. In their view, allowing it just complicates enforcement of the predation ban, since it would be hard to prove any specific piece of meat is from a hunted and slaughtered animal or one that died of unrelated causes, and they consider not giving animals that still hunt and eat animals plausible deniability to be more important than the “freedom” to eat the dead even though they don’t really regard the dead with any reverence. It’s also higher risk to the predator than fully plant based alternatives due to the risk of disease since now that they aren’t being eaten, way more animals die of disease which is still a scourge in this society, though because they’ve outright banned it they haven’t developed much in the way of sterilizing carrion and making it safer to eat, so it might not be a technological deficiency so much as an effort deficiency.
Socially, they don’t consider it disrespectful to the dead so much as disrespectful and awkward to the still-living members of the same species. Imagine a cat and a mouse work together, it would inevitably raise tensions if the cat was munching on the mouse’s late grandpa in the break room, even if the cat has no intentions of hunting the still living mouse. There’s also the factor that most non-meat-eating carnivore species themselves see predation as a barbaric and shameful part of their history that they are very proud to have moved beyond, so it would go against that and just be plain taboo if nothing else.
Though I do imagine this debate would keep cropping up even in their modern times so it could be an interesting angle to explore further! For example, an argument might be made be that no one needs to be forced to eat carrion since other alternatives already exist, but banning it and having it treated the same as eating meat from freshly slaughtered animals may be an overreach of the law and does more harm than good.