“It’s an animal. Their loyalty to you ends when the food ends.”
I don’t believe that is true with a lot of dog breeds (generally the breeds closest to the original wolf) and most horses. You are part of a pack, which includes caring and defending its members.
Perhaps also cats. We had a number of barn cats in Israel that guarded chickens (yes) against asps (Egyptian cobras). They were very good at it, and would torture the crap out of the snakes before killing them.
That said, people are absurd with their animals.
My 3 German Shepherds would die before ever harming me or my wife.
Numerous times they put themselves between danger and us.
They never even delay in thinking about it.
Herd of Elk (Elk are quite aggressive).
Bear.
And a stalking coyote.
Our Shepherds are a mix of East and West German Shepherd dogs.
The East Germans bred dogs to be big and strong but didn’t focus on AKC standards or intelligence so much. They wanted them for military/border guarding.
Western Shepherds are the more common American type breeds. Smaller, but smart as a whip.
When the Wall came down……..people began to breed together and so did their pure blood German Shepherds. LOL
You are correct, we are a pack. Each pack member’s survival depends on other pack members in my dog’s opinion.
On carry a S&W .357 magnum when home (9mm in public) not to protect myself, but to protect my stupidly brave dogs!
When you mentioned asps, I started to think of Cleopatra.
Did she use them as a murder weapon?