Animals have no capacity for reason, ethical thought, or deliberation. Nor do they have those characteristics as something either anomolous, or intrinsic to their nature. The natural behaviors they exhibit are not the result of any of the enumerated characteristics listed above, but of instinct developed as a result of millions of years of evolution. The creatures that protect their young from predators, are the very same creatures that eat them when they detect competition out of them, or abandon them entirely when they reach age. Thus, the ethical domain does not pertain to animals whatsoever, except perhaps in the realm of humans deliberatly causing them sensless suffering. But, killing them for food is ethically neutral.

An innocent is one who's ignorant of ethics (re A&E and their fall from grace).

The question then is, can animals know? Do animals possess knowledge? Does being able to tell food from non-food, predator from kin, etc. mean that animals both can learn & do have knowledge?

Is ethics a different category of knowledge, accessible only to humans?

In its most basic form, as taught to children, ethics is carrot and stick in nature (reward/punishment). Animals understand that language, just as we do, very well as evinced by how dogs, lions, tigers, to name but a few can be trained.

Animals are innocent so long as they haven't been taught ethics. Once they have been, they're no longer innocent. Right?

I now "understand" why God was so pissed at A&E! The opposite of innocent is guilty. Losing one's innocence automatically leads to guilt aka Original Sin!