It’s an interesting dilemma faced by those engaging in anthropomorphic fantasy. You do have that precarious situation humanizing several different species of animals and giving certain species universal attributes or associations (good/evil) can lend itself to the perception of racism. Thing is, though, there is an out in that the most common antagonists in these stories are the predatory animal, and as such the storytelling is more an extension of the reality of their relationships in the wild rather than their human counterparts. There’s no fix for this that lends itself to strong storytelling. One just has to, I suppose, be careful not to cross that line and hope that children know the difference between the antagonistic relationship some animals have towards each other versus the racial component of human interaction. I personally think kids do make that distinction themselves. They’re a lot smarter/more observant than we give them credit for.

I wonder how they deal with over population due to not being spade or neutered?

Did you see they are coming out with a bear series, The Watchers?

There are other books that feature animals that communicate with each other that were quite popular like Watership Down (wild rabbits) and Tailchaser’s Song (cats) and one rather disturbing book about a couple of dogs that escape from a research lab called The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams.

There’s something about looking at human behavior through the eyes of animals that makes these tales interesting. Anyone familiar with animals is well aware that there is a lot of communicating going on that we can’t really understand and therefore ignore. All part of our arrogance toward the natural world and the creatures we were put in charge of back in the Garden of Eden.