theme of the story

That can be a tricky one! THis is such a preposterous piece of escape fiction that it is difficult to attach a theme to it and be serious. There is the whole "do animals feel pain, fear, helplessness...thing." It's pretty much spelled out for us at the beginning of the story in the conversation between Whitney and Rainsford. The hunter becomes the hunted and gets to feel what it is like. I think a serious theme like animal suffering deserves a more plausible piece of fiction but if you really have to write a theme down, it's not hard to spot.