regarding not getting hit by AI, deer behave oddly when you take a couple steps down the screen (south east). They can't decide what direction to face and fail to attack you. Sometimes deer even stop attacking you but don't run away. Might be intentional behavior though.
Clicking the icon to stop agro also stops animals from running away when they are dying. You leave combat and sometimes after re-entering combat they don't run away at all. Doesn't seem to happen with foxes tho. So this might also be intentional.