The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is one example of stark animal imagery. A group of British boys stranded on an island start showing a tendency of extremely feral behavior in their struggle for survival, and revert to the primitive state of human kind when life was lawless and only might was the rule for all to fall in line. Importantly it is an exhibition of the horde mentality, and many of the boys fall behind the power monger Jack who destroys their inbuilt discipline and values to rule them like a dictator.
In the process a boy called Piggy whose glasses are used to light the fire is killed and Ralph the sane voice is hunted by the pack and is rescued by a British officer just landed to investigate the fire on the island. The cries of “ Kill the Pig, Cut the throat, Spill the blood” by the boys as they dance to a frenzied beat of drums is animal and brutal.
Gorge Orwell’s Animal Farm is another allegorical novel and uses animal imagery to narrate a tale of how “All animals are equal but some are more equal.”