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Throughout Othello, the majority of the animal imagery is used in metaphors to depict things in either a crude, demeaning or derogatory way.
One example is when Iago says, "It is impossible you should see this, were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, as salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross as ignorance made drunk." (3.3.402-405)
http://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/othello/Iagobeas.html
http://www.shmoop.com/othello/race-quotes.html
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/othello/critical-essays/major-symbols-and-motifs
Iago is the first to use animal imagery in Othello. He uses it in a way to be crude and derogatory.
This is when Iago refers to seeing Desdemona and Cassio sleeping together, but by using animal imagery, he words it in a way that seems bestial.
Othello even begins to use terms like Iago when saying, "Goats and Monkeys!" referring to Cassio and Desdemona.
In the beginning, it is primarily Iago who uses animal imagery. Over time though, his use of it influences other characters making them use animal imagery as well.
Iago says, "Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe" (1.1.111-114)
Roderigo is one of the people who begins to use animal imagery after spending so much time with Iago.
Another person who begins using animal imagery is Othello.
At the end of the play Roderigo says, "O damn'd Iago! O inhumane dog!" (5.1.62)
At one point Othello says, "If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, each drop she falls would prove a crocodile." (4.1.142-143)