tbf, it seems like his relationship with animals was really hit or miss:

Diodorus Siculus recorded a story of Menes related by the priests of the crocodile god Sobek at Crocodilopolis, in which the pharaoh Menes, attacked by his own dogs while out hunting fled across Lake Moeris on the back of a crocodile and, in thanks, founded the city of Crocodilopolis.

It became famous as the Great Hippo War.