>>53493072Yes they have whips because those are left overs from the old idea. But the PC doesn't have them despite old beta sprites for Red. Gen I still portrayed Pokémon as harmless. A lot of aspects of Pokémon as cute pets were already underway in Gen I like Shudo mentioning that it was decided that domesticated Pokémon would eat dry pet food before the production of the anime. If you notice all these sources keep pointing out to pets, and in particular cats and dogs, as inspiration.
And it's not just James Turner, Sugimori said the same thing here:
>>53489035 