We tend to forget that we are top of the food chain only because we have weapons / tools. We also forget with being heavily urbanised that a frighted panicked animal will attack to defend it's self and if it's in pain it will be more dangerous than one that is just cornered. Humans are frigile though very much so but what we lost in physical strength compared to most of the great ape family we make up for it with higher brain functions and reasoning skills.
A prime example of this is point a finger, humans are the only animal in the world that will follow the imaginary line to the spot on the horizon that the other is pointing at other animals just look at the finger. This shows our higher reasoning skills as we don't mean look at my finger we mean look at that my finger is showing you the right way to look.
Simple lesson is don't be cruel to a animal or approach one that is in pain or frightend unless you want to get hurt your self.