I mean, animals are exploited by other animals all the time… The relationships can be mutually beneficial though or at least commensal (one species benefits while the other neither benefits nor is harmed)
There are wasps that mimic bees and take over their hives for their own breeding purposes.
Some prairie dogs use bird calls as a predator warning system, which the bird exploits to steal the prairie dog’s food.
Cuckoo birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds to be raised by them
Some ants farm aphids for their sugary secretions
People were able to live side by side with so many animals over millennia without destroying entire populations. So I’d say that humans using animals instead of machines can be quite solarpunk.
I never said that animal exploitation is good, just that it is ‘natural’ in the world. Solarpunk, as an idea, has everything to do with nature. Coexisting and living with it, rather than against it.
Is it wrong to use ladybugs as a form of pest control instead of harmful chemicals?
It’s it wrong to ride a horse around a farm instead of an ATV or even an electric UTV?
Additionally, the definition of exploitation can vary wildly from person to person, and even moreso between cultures. So imo, pretty much everything that happens in the animal kingdom is party of solarpunk. The “good” and the “bad.” As nothing is all good or all bad. Even murder can be justified in the most extreme cases (i.e. Hitler, Stalin, Trump, billionaire CEOs, etc )