probably because pokemon are explicitly depicted as being more intelligent than existing animals
before anyone @s me about how smart pigs and shit are, I already know, but in general pokemon are depicted as much more intelligent than that so it’s more comparable to saying “yeah our society eats dolphins all day”
Some of them are dumbasses but I think I get the point that they’re more human-like (they often have anthropomorphic traits) than real animals. Well, except for like, Muk, Xurkitree, etc. but I don’t think this conversation includes those lol.
yeah I mean there’s your slowpokes and stuff but in the anime and stuff you can clearly see Pikachu/etc are generally as intelligent as the child protagonists
