Now, after chat in the general channel and asking about this issue, i am getting responses that include an array of diverse responses, many of which fall into these four catagories:

(1) that all animals that are amiable are off limits for druids & rangers,
(2) that this only applies to the "old world" zones, or
(3) that it only applies to your home zone/city, or
(4) that is only applies to rangers & druids of Karana, and only in the zones of Surefall and Jagged Pine forest. Yet another guy says that it doesnt matter at all, and that we can kill all the animals we want and we will never lose this amiable faction with them. BUT that answer seems to defy all the rules of faction in EQ altogether -- if i kill guards in a city, I lose faction with ALL of them forever, unless i can do a quest or task to raise that faction.
And with the animals, there are no such quests to re-raise faction once it is lost. It is permanent.

Looking for answers here, people