At first, under the rule of Farmer Jones and his men, the pigs and the dogs are in the same situation as all the other animals on the farm. Their lives, says Old Major, are miserable, filled with hard labor, and short. They, like the other animals, are given as little as the owners can get away with offering them. Also like all the other animals, the pigs and dogs will be killed when it is more useful for the owners to end their lives. As Old Major puts it:
You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year. To that horror we all must come — cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone. Even the horses and the dogs have no better fate. You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds. As for the dogs, when they grow old and toothless, Jones ties a brick round their necks and drowns them in the nearest pond.
But after the Rebellion, the pigs and dogs, who are more intelligent, form a different and superior caste, with more privilege than the other animals. They soon move into the farmhouse, with the pigs in the superior position, the dogs functioning as guards and servants, but still living more comfortably than those left behind.
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