What was the first story to depict a vampire who does not feed on humans?

Question

As I asked the question about whether or not modern day vampires were merely super heroes, it got me wondering:

Where is the first depiction of a vampire who does not kill humans? In other words, a vampire who must drink blood to survive, but has enough of a conscience that he or she takes steps to avoid killing anyone.

There are three possibilities for this, one is that they drink blood without killing the person (drinking human blood from blood bags would fall into this category). Another is drinking from animals. The last is a technological solution, such as having synthetic blood as a replacement for human blood, or any other workaround that is built out of engineering.

The main issue is who is the first vampire to not want to kill humans to survive, so any of the three methods would count. However, as a bonus, it would be interesting to know the first occurrence of each.

Also, it has to be a vampire who not merely regrets killing humans, but actually survives somehow without killing humans.

Any media counts - books, movies, TV, short stories, comics...

Traditional folklore, if it applies, would be interesting to note, but the focus of this question is on specific nameable works of fiction, since folklore is so malleable.

Also, we're looking for a character that is undeniably a vampire. Damphirs (half human, half vampire), humans infected with vampire blood but not fully realized vampires (perhaps not undead yet), or other variants don't count. Yes, I realize there could probably be a lot of debate on what counts as a "true" vampire, but let's try our best to come to a consensus on it.

Answer 1

La morte amoureuse a.k.a. The Dead Woman in Love short story written by Théophile Gautier in 1836.

It does fit one of your points:

There are three possibilities for this, one is that they drink blood without killing the person

From La Morte Amoureuse, aka The Dead Woman In Love, aka Clarimonde:

"One drop, only one drop! One ruby at the end of my needle.... Since thou lovest me yet, I must not die!... Ah, poor love! His beautiful blood, so brightly purple, I must drink it. Sleep, my only treasure! Sleep, my god, my child! I will do thee no harm; I will only take of thy life what I must to keep my own from being forever extinguished. But that I love thee so much, I could well resolve to have other lovers whose veins I could drain; but since I have known thee all other men have become hateful to me...."

Answer 2

1956: "She Only Goes Out at Night . . ." by William Tenn (pseudonym of Philip Klass), first published in Fantastic Universe, October 1956, available at the Internet Archive, is about a young lady vampire named Tatiana Latianu

He came back about eleven-thirty, looking as old as his father. I was right, all right. When he'd wakened Tatiana and asked her straight, she'd broken down and wept a couple of buckets-full. Yes, she was a vampire, but she'd only got the urge a couple of months ago. She'd fought it until her mind began to crack. Then she'd found that she could make herself invisible, when the craving hit her. She'd only touched kids, because she was afraid of grown-ups—they might wake up and be able to catch her. But she'd kind of worked on a lot of kids at one time, so that no one kid would lose too much blood. Only the craving had been getting stronger . . .

and the country doctor who cures her:

The only thing none of us counted on was Doc. Not enough, that is.

Once he'd been introduced to Tatiana and heard her story, his shoulders straightened and the lights came back on in his eyes. The sick children would be all right now. That was most important. And as for Tatiana—

"Nonsense," he told her. "Vampirism might have been an incurable disease in the fifteenth century, but I'm sure it can be handled in the twentieth. First, this nocturnal living points to a possible allergy involving sunlight and perhaps a touch of photophobia. You'll wear tinted glasses for a bit, my girl, and we'll see what we can do with hormone injections. The need for consuming blood, however, presents a somewhat greater problem."

But he solved it:

They make blood in a dehydrated, crystalline form these days. So every night before Mrs. Steven Judd goes to sleep, she shakes some powder into a tall glass of water, drops in an ice-cube or two and has her daily blood toddy. Far as I know, she and her husband are living happily ever after.

Answer 3

If you don't include experiments, the first one I can think of is Interview with the Vampire which was initially published in 1976. Louis chooses to drink animal blood rather than kill humans.

Answer 4

Using the TVTropes link the earliest would be Marvel's Blade: the Vampire Hunter who first appeared in Tomb Of Dracula #10 in July 1973.

Although Blade began as only a Dhampir due to his mother being bitten while she was giving birth to him and he did not have had the need to feed on blood but he also only had human strength. This all changed when he was bitten by Morbius: The Living Vampire in issue #8 of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man (July 1976).

Because Morbius' vampirism was derived from an experimental treatment of a rare blood disorder rather than a bite, this led to Blade gaining many of the traditional vampire powers without gaining any of the weaknesses. However, he does have a need to drink blood but chooses to fight the urges. In the movies this led to his using a serum that killed the cravings.

Answer 5

Barnabas Collins, Dark Shadows TV series 1966-1971. When the vampire Barnabas Collins was released from captivity after 172 years, after he bit the character that released him, he originally fed on cows and calves. Later he fed on humans. When he was originally cursed he fed exclusively on humans.

Answer 6

Perhaps it was Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko in 1998. Night Watch has a whole category of "good" vampires that drink blood from blood banks or animals rather than prey on humans. It's the earliest example of "good" vampires I've read.

Answer 7

The vampires in The Saga of Darren Shan don't kill people when they feed on them. Their cousins, the vampaneze, do. Desmond Tiny is responsible for this, as he is responsible for their sterility and being nocturnal. The same is true in Twilight. I'm sure there were stories that came out about vampires letting their victims live before Darren Shan and Stephanie Meyer were born, but their stories are the only ones I could think of off the top of my head. Darren Shan's vampires breathe out a gas that makes victims unconscious, but it wears off after a few hours, making people unaware that vampires fed on them.

Answer 8

Draculaura from Monster High doesn't feed on humans or animals. She is a vegan vampire, which means she feeds on plants. So does Bunnicula. If more vampires were like them, then people wouldn't fear them.

Answer 9

The 2000 children's movie "The Little Vampire" was based on the books of Angela Sommer-Bodenburg. The movie version had the vampires looking for a magic amulet that would restore their humanity, and they refused to drink human blood, opting instead for cow's blood. In the books, the vampires never wanted to become mortal. The movie was a sweet story, starring Jonathan Lipnicki, Rollo Weeks, Richard E. Grant, Alice Krige, Dean Cook, and a host of others.