animaliser

A rare verb meaning to reduce someone to the status of an animal, usually in a critical or dehumanizing sense — used in sociological, philosophical, or political writing about dehumanization.

• Cette propagande cherchait à animaliser l'adversaire pour justifier la violence. — This propaganda sought to dehumanize the enemy to justify violence.
• Le philosophe dénonce un discours qui animalise certains groupes sociaux. — The philosopher denounces a discourse that dehumanizes certain social groups.
• Réduire quelqu'un à ses instincts, c'est en quelque sorte l'animaliser. — Reducing someone to their instincts is, in a way, animalizing them.

This is a loaded, critical term from political and philosophical writing, not neutral vocabulary — learners should know it always carries a negative, dehumanizing connotation.