Interest Stacks

In Real Life, we humans are basically the only species uncomfortable with public nudity. (Though the extent varies massively depending on the culture and time period Most other creatures in the world) with the arguable exceptions of hermit crabs, caddisfly larvae, and decorator crabs don't share this taboo, and spend the entirety of their lives without ever covering themselves in a shred of clothing. So when a work of fiction uses animals for its core cast of thinking, personified characters, what's an author to do about their underlying, well, nudity?

Now is an important time to define the term "nudity": When we say that a person is "naked", we usually use it in a social context, implying that they should Please Put Some Clothes On. As Fully-Clothed Nudity shows, we can consider a person "naked" even if they actually have some kind of clothes on. Even though the standard for acceptable human attire can vary with each culture, this isn't a standard we hold animals to; we just don't view their nudity as being so objectionable. Maybe it's the coat of fur (or feathers) that partially obscures their genitals already; maybe it's the four-legged posture that makes their unmentionables less visible than those of a bipedal human (especially from the front). So while we may not particularly want to be looking at an animal's family jewels, the omission of them in art is (usually) much less noticeable than Human Nudity.

The target demographic for this trope is more in response to Children and Teens. However this does not stop an Adult from Enjoying the Show.

or in Opposite Ways, This is about animals wearing accessories and pieces of clothing. Only, they are not Always cartoonish animals. They still walk on four legs (unless they are a bird or another animal that is supposed to be bipedal), most don't talk, they eat from the floor, and most lack the opposing thumbs and manual dexterity that allow them to hold things.

Given the lack of proper clothing that animals (those less anthropomorphic than the Civilized Animal tier) can wear without feeling uncomfortable, the amount of clothing they can wear usually doesn't exceed the accessory-wearing or half-dressed (shirt or other top but no pants or other bottom version) tiers.

Truth in Television: Some owners do give dogs clothes for them to wear, mostly for small dogs in winter. Also, working animals almost always wear special packs, vests, jackets, or blankets marking them as such.