The Value of Animals in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, a Novel by Philip K. Dick

In Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep the material value of real animals is a major theme. Animals have become objects of wealth for humans on the post World War Terminus earth. Animals are still not appreciated for their intrinsic value. The novel also begs the question; can we replace biology with technology? The author shows the value that animals have in a few different scenes. The first is when Rick Deckard decides he needs to buy goat. Another important scene showing the importance and value that animals have in this novel is when Pris is torturing the spider. The last scene to examine is at the end of he novel when Deckard finds what he thinks is a real toad.

Rick Deckard believes that by owning an animal humans can show the one true thing that makes them humans; empathy. He is disgraced by the fact that he owns an electric sheep instead of a real one. "He wished to god he had a horse, in fact any animal. Owning and maintaining a fraud had a way of gradually demoralizing one" (9). Deckard uses $3,000 of his bounty money to put a down payment on a goat. His reason for buying the goat is because he thinks he is feeling empathy for the androids. "I've begun to empathize with androids... That's why I bought the goat. I never felt like that before" (174). The buying of the goat is quite the experience for Deckard similar to buying a fancy BMW today. The salesman has to sell him on the animal and then convince him to sign the contract. This is a great example of how animals are highly desired objects of material wealth.

When John Isidore is taking Rachael's stuff up to his apartment he notices a spider. Pris, and android, doesn't realize that it has any value at all "Pris glanced up inquiringly. 'Is it worth something?"" (206). She proceeds to cut off the legs of the spider without remorse and getting a little enjoyment out of the operation. "Pris clipped off another leg, restraining the spider with the edge of her hand. She was smiling" (206). The killing of the spider makes the reader question his or her own smashing of bugs without remorse. Surely if we saw someone cutting the legs off of a spider we might take a double take and look at them funny, but surely we would not think they were doing something outlandish and evil. The image of the spider being brutally tortured shows just how precious life is on the depleted planet.

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At the end of the novel when Rick finds what he thinks is a real toad he is excited about all the fame and fortune that he thinks awaits him. "What happens when you find—if you find an animal believed extinct? He asked himself, trying to remember. It happened so seldom, Something about the star of honor from the U.N. and a stipend" (237). Finding this animal is uncommon in this world where almost all the animals are extinct and highly sought after. Unfortunately for Decker the toad ends up being an android but he is still attached to the toad. "And no android, he thought, will cut the legs from this. As they did from the chickenhead's spider" (238). Deckard decides that the toad has a life of its own even if it is an android. The realization that the toad has its own life changes the way Deckard feels about empathy and animals.

At the end of the novel Iran is ordering supplies to take care of the toad as if it were a real animal. Dick's novel doesn't really answer the question of whether technology can replace biology. As with many science fiction novels the ending is left up for the reader to decide. Can we feel empathy for a robot and can they feel the same for us? Should we value animals for their intrinsic value, or only their instrumental?

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