Nine Times 90s and 2000s Cartoons Taught Us to Be Kind to Animals

Posted by Calvin on January 14, 2025

Ever wonder why you grew up to be so respectful of all species? There could be many reasons, but one explanation is ’90s and 2000s cartoons had some seriously animal-friendly messages. 😍 Here’s how nostalgic cartoons from the ’90s and 2000s taught us to be kind to animals:

90s and 2000s Cartoons That Had Animal-Friendly Messages

SpongeBob SquarePants

SpongeBob is just a likable dude, so it’s no surprise that he makes friends with a seahorse named Mystery in the episode “My Pretty Seahorse.” He wants to keep Mystery inside with him but soon realizes that wild animals don’t belong indoors and sets her free again.

We should follow SpongeBob’s lead and leave wild animals in peace. This means never keeping an animal like a hermit crab as a “pet”—these sensitive animals belong in their natural homes.

The Simpsons

In the season seven episode “Lisa the Vegetarian,” the eight-year-old Simpson decides to stop eating meat after bonding with a lamb. With the help of Apu and Paul and Linda McCartney, she enters her vegetarian era.

Lisa is helping save countless animals from being abused and violently slaughtered for their flesh, and we’re hoping she’ll choose to go vegan to save even more. Going vegan is the best way to help cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals avoid suffering.

The Fairly OddParents

Mr. Crocker’s villain arc reaches a new level of evil in the episode “Teacher’s Pet” when it’s revealed that he holds animals captive in the Crocker Cave and plans to experiment on them. Thankfully, our boy Timmy sets them free just in time. 🙌

The animals in the Crocker Cave are fictional, but animals IRL are locked in laboratories and forced to endure painful experiments and testing worldwide. You can help them by buying only products made by companies that don’t test on animals and urging universities to stop the experiments.

The Magic School Bus

Besides teaching her class how fascinating different animals are, Ms. Frizzle made a top-tier animal-friendly move in back-to-back episodes. In both “For Lunch” and “Inside Ralphie,” Ms. Frizzle taught her students about the body by shrinking the magic school bus and flying around inside Arnold and Ralphie instead of cutting into animals.

Okay, so it’s impossible to shrink a school bus like that—but there are many ways to learn about science that don’t involve harming pigs or frogs. We can use books, computer programs, and humane models like the Kind Frog™.

The Powerpuff Girls

Bubbles deeply cares about animals, so after bringing a baby whale back from the beach in the episode “Helter Shelter,” she realizes that she should set him free to return to his fam. 🐳 In another episode, “Mr. Mojo’s Rising,”, Mojo Jojo the chimpanzee reveals that his brain got mutated with Chemical X inside Professor Utonium’s laboratory.

As an animal advocate, Bubbles knows that marine animals like whales belong in their ocean homes. If she lived in our universe, she would def boycott SeaWorld—the company keeps intelligent animals trapped in tiny tanks and sexually abuses dolphins and whales to breed generations of prisoners—and shop cruelty-free to help chimpanzees avoid Mojo’s fate.

The Wild Thornberrys

As if being able to speak to animals wasn’t cool enough, Eliza also sticks up for animals several times in the story of how she got her power. In “Gift of Gab,” she defends a chimpanzee (Darwin) when Debbie throws makeup supplies at him and frees a warthog’s leg from a beartrap.

If we could legit speak to animals, they would 100% ask us not to harm them. By making choices like going vegan, shopping cruelty-free, and urging others to stop hunting, we can help animals enjoy their lives free from exploitation.

Pepper Ann

In the episode “Sammy’s Song,” Janie finds a skunk whose head is stuck in an empty jar of Pyramid Peanut Butter. After rescuing the animal, she led a movement to change the brand’s jars to be skunk-friendly.

Animals like skunks, squirrels, and raccoons can easily get trapped in our trash and recycling, so it’s crucial that we dispose of things properly. By making a few simple tweaks like capping off your jars and rinsing out and crushing your cans, you can help save animals from painful, panicked deaths.

Braceface

While we love Braceface for the whacky mishaps lead character Sharon Spitz finds herself in, we cheer extra hard for Alicia Silverstone, who voiced Spitz in the first two seasons. 🤩 Silverstone is a PETA honorary board member who first teamed up with us to urge students to cut out dissection and continues to be a huge animal advocate along with her son, Bear.

Every year, frogs are kidnapped from their homes in nature, fetal pigs are torn from their mother’s wombs in the slaughterhouse, and mice and rats are bred in warehouses before being killed for classroom dissection. This is extremely cruel and pointless—help get animal dissection out of your school!

Doug

Doug and his band, The Beets, blessed us with an absolute banger. The song “Killer Tofu” has a strong vegan message: Ditch low-quality fast food for delicious tofu.

Humans have enjoyed tofu (bean curd) for thousands of years due to its versatility, high protein density, and health benefits. Take The Beets’ advice and try some killer tofu today—we have just the recipes for you:

• Breakfast Scramble Tacos
• BBQ Tofu Bowl
• Tofu-Spinach Lasagne
• Lemon-Dill Tofu Veggie Wrap

*****

Besides 90s and 2000s cartoons, we might have also picked up some of our compassionate values by watching Disney movies. From Snow White to Ethan Clade, we’d be willing to bet these Disney characters are vegan.