@valtyrnine
I completely agree with you on every aspect.
I've noticed this problem in past games (those being Origins and Odyssey, with Odyssey being the worse offender as usual).
The Devs just don't get animal fights. They just don't. Almost all of them are frustrating, buggy messes.
I believe this stems from their "RPG" - Agenda they've been stumbling through this last few games, trying to make boss fights with a variety of different effects. And as there doesn't seem to be an understanding about how to adequately implement these systems we end with these...incompetences.
I just hope that ubisoft gets their [censored] together and tries a different approach in the next years. I don't believe they can't afford these haphazard attempts any longer, their image being battered as it is.