Something that may be related to this:
On the woods screen just before the marsh east of the VoB, engaging in combat as my druid PC with hostile weres has led to some strange behavior in neutral animals. Of two foxes that were close by enough to be attacked by/attack the weres themselves, one became hostile and aggressive to my pc, and the other attacked me while remaining in the neutral state. Since I was just using a melee weapon and no spells aside from wards, I don't think I could have possibly attacked them on accident to trigger the hostility.
It seems something about being in proximity to combat can possibly make animals act strangely toward even druids with max points in AE...?