what is the theme of the story?

Feeling for animals??

I think the whole animal feeling stuff is supposed to be the theme but here is an earlier answer I once gave,

The Most Dangerous Game is a perfect example of "escape fiction". These types of stories are really meant to entertain rather than challenge the reader to reflect on a message. Still, if you need to come up with a theme you can consider the whole morality behind killing animals. Do animals have feelings? This theme is introduced early in the story but is only superficially dealt with.