Before Disney most people understood the difference between animals and humans;I wonder if Disney was aware of the damage he was doing?
People lived so much closer to nature then that I think everyone must have known those were fairy tales - it's only now, when kids never even see a raccoon, that they don't know better. I'm sure he'd have been horrified if he'd had a clue as to how his pleasant little fantasies would be warped in these days.