This is fascinating. What do obligate carnivores eat to sustain themselves?

I would compare this to real life violent hate / sex crimes. So - trigger warning for the rest of my reply.

Like a real life hate / sex crime, the motive is going to be rooted in base emotions lurking underneath the veneer of civilization. Motives that are going to be hard (socially) to talk about. I imagine there will be ALL kinds of red flags the animals close to the perpetrator should have picked up on, but were wilfully blind to ("But his mom always said he was such a sweet jaguar!"). Investigators are going to closely look at those. They're going to ask things like "has the perpetrator (or a jaguar matching their description):"

• Been seen stalking the victim, or others in areas near where the crime took place?
• Spoken with friends or family about wanting to try meat?
• Left traces on "animalnet" or whatever that they have certain "predilections" (comments, web searches, participation in certain communities, etc)?
• Have in their possession writings by other predators, legitimizing their desires?
• Possess media depicting acts of predation?
• Have their own writings, manifestos, fantasies, etc?
• Associated with others who have similar interests?
• Are they socially isolated, with a poor support system or lack access to mental health resources?
• Any other patters of past behaviour? I. E.

Prosecutor: I'm going to read now from a sworn statement from a former associate of the accused, who has been granted anonymity by the court, due to fears of retaliation. She says, and I quote: "Back in college, we belonged to Phi-Gamma-Delta, you know, the all Birds of Prey sorority? Anyway, we used to hassle ground squirrels and sparrows and stuff... fly across the quad at night, cast shadows over rodents walking back from class alone, get drunk and make screeching noises outside the Prairie Dog dorm... You know, that you do when you're young and stupid and trying to fit in. We NEVER hurt anybody, but thinking back on it now, it was really pretty terrible stuff. Anyway, I DID feel like sometimes she went too far. Like this one time, I saw her pin a little field mouse down with her talons and kind of peck at her until she drew blood." Emphasis mine, your honor.

All of this is going to be used by prosecutors to establish motive and intent and (like in the real world) it's going to be WAY easier when there's a pattern of certain behaviours (and likely rhetoric) than when it's a pure crime of passion or opportunity. However, those have some common patterns to look at too.

Especially when it's a crime of passion / opportunity, the victim is VERY likely to be someone known, even close to the perpetrator.

I imagine in a case like that that "proving intent" is something prosecutors are going to hold over a perpetrator's head to get plea bargains: "Look, we know you've been having trouble at work, we know you were fighting with your manager about quotas and PTO, we have you on camera shouting at each other in the parking garage three hours before his gnawed on corpse was found. We're not interested in the fact that you gnawed on him... that's just biology kicking in... Plead guilty to murder, you get twenty to twenty five. Or plead not guilty and we start looking at a First Degree Predation charge... his body WAS gnawed on after all..."

As in real life, the authorities may have the perpetrator assessed by a psychologist and that ~~person~~ animal may be called as a witness by the prosecution, with deep and complex arguments being used to establish whether this particular case meets the burden of proof for First Degree Predation. In such a case, the defence may have the defendant independently assessed, and will likely get a consultant to help them figure out good cross examination questions to throw doubt on the "intent."

Since your world sounds FAIRLY mature and complex, I have to wonder if there is a predation "Kink" scene... or "Prey workers" (like rabbits or gazelles you can pay to let you "hunt" them). If so is that legal and socially accepted? Or taboo and shameful? In your cop procedural show, the main characters are TOTALLY going to interrupt a "hunt" in progress, only to discover it's an elaborate role play scenario.

What if I'm a big strong lion in my day job and at home with my family and I wear a suit, and work for a big shot stock trading firm, but on the weekends, I pay this wildebeest to humiliate me, chase me around a hotel room and tell me he's going to eat my flesh? Have him pin me down and try to gnaw on me with his ridiculous herbavore teeth? Could this be used to blackmail or publicly shame me? What if the wildebeest is blackmailing me? What if I snap, kill him and then eat him to hide the crime? Am I guilty of First Degree Predation? What does my lawyer advise me to say? (In this scenario, the cop drama story is totally that I'm innocent and one of my lionesses did it when she found out what was going on...)

Also, is there "speciesism"? Or a "Predators Rights" movement? Can I go to a PRA conference where some wolf will start talking to me about how "modern culture" and "the Herbavorist movement" are "neutering obligate carnivores"... and he'll SEEM like such a nice, reasonable guy, but after he gets a few drinks in him and loosens up, he'll start talking about how "meat is a biological imperative" and "the state should just assign every wolf a flock of sheep" and how "everything went to shit when we gave rabbits and chickens the vote!"

I also assume animals have some way to write or record information, (and use other tools, if they're running lab tests) since otherwise civilization is pretty impossible. I'm curious about how that works without opposable thumbs.

Here are factors that might commonly be used to provide evidence for intent to eat:

• Storing the body in a way that preserves it in ways appropriate for consumption but not medical use

• Owning implements used specifically for the consumption of the target creature (e.g. a carving knife for a turkey, lobster crackers/pokers, etc.)

• Possession of ingredients habitually consumed with the target creature

• Communications or behavior signaling an intent to eat the target creature (this one is kind of obvious)

• Carnivorous character/personality tendencies (potentially provided by character witnesses before or against the defendant)

Interesting idea that intent would be such an important part of their legal system.

I have no experience in world building or legal stuff, but I would imagine proof might be part of the actions leading up to said event, such as planning and preparing to execute said plan.

Then, disproving might be showing a chain of events that might lead to an accidental predation.