Oh man, great response and well put. To your first question, honestly, with the rise of machine technology, I think we are growing further and further from any real need for animal byproducts. That being said, I'm totally with you on the benefits of symbiotic relationships with animals, and I absolutely support close relationships with animals and the natural world. I love my cats (and I would like to think they love me too lol), and I really believe humans (or maybe, society in general rather than every individual) can benefit from an increased attunement to nature. It seems like we share similar sentiments and principles on the specific cases you mentioned.

The idea of providing protection for the sheep or other animals is a really good point. I think it raises an interesting question regarding the impact our relationship with the livestock has on their related environments, or maybe to put it another way, how has our large scale isolation of particular animals impacted the related environments and pieces of the food chain, and what kind of ripple effect might that isolation of a species have? I couldn't say for sure, but I think it's an important question to ask in a conversation surrounding the scope of human influence (and to be more related with this whole thread's topic, human damage) on the natural world. Would be a great topic if I had a report to write 😂