Doctor Dillamond is a self-aware Goat, and part of a minority of talking Animals (designated by capital letter) that hold civil rights equal to humans. Doctor Dillamond informs the class that, under the despotic reign of the Wizard of Oz, Animals are being discriminated against, treated like regular animals and, in some cases, forced to return to the fields. Doctor Dillamond's fear that Animal discrimination is becoming widespread appears affirmed when Madame Morrible, the Headmistress of Crage Hall at Shiz University, holds a poetry soiree that becomes a forum for her to spread propaganda against them.