Yes, I agree that there is a lot of truth in this statement, and it is mainly because the animals were gullible, brainwashed and lacked a lot of intelligence.

When the story began, the setting in the barn for Old Major's speech about his strange dream, the animals were very gullible, and did not question Old Major about the arrangement of their seating. The arrangement was not on a first come, first serve basis, but all the animals had their "proper and rightful" seating, Old Major on a bed of straw, under a lantern hung from a beam. "Before long, the other animals began to arrive... ... and then the pigs who settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform...came the cat, who looked around, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself in between Boxer and Clover." They animals did not notice...