OMG. He was *way* more understanding with animals than with humans. Dogs, monkeys, horses, you name it. He was opposed to hunting for pleasure, but not warfare for fame and glory. There is a whole class of people like this (at whom I am very head-shaky. Humans come before animals in my code of ethics.) I've seen various quotes from him that I would have to track down, but basically to the effect that dogs are morally superior to humans.

In fact, yesterday I found my first anecdote of him possibly hitting an animal (horse), which I raised an eyebrow at and have mentally placed a question mark next to. Admittedly he was much older in that anecdote, and Old Fritz is much more ruthless than Young Fritz, but this is the guy who, when asked why he wouldn't wear spurs, supposedly asked the questioner to pull up the bottom of their shirt, jabbed them in the exposed flesh of their stomach with a fork and said, "That's why."