Judging by the abundance of animal-related posts on Buzzfeed, one has to conclude that “Puppies That Make Your Heart Melt” and “Dogs That are Not OK With Sweater Weather” are high up in the public interest. While the obsession with the “human touch” makes crime, violence, extravagance, scandal, escapades and strokes of fate the prime topics for tabloids, animals seem to exude a very different fascination. They are pure, innocent and selfish in a morally acceptable way: the survival instinct is generally considered as being unassailable. In short, animals are more endearing than humans. Humans of course know this and are using it to their advantage. That’s why US presidents since George Washington have had pets that lasted for at least one term of office. JFK even received a dog from Khrushchev as a present. It mated with one of JFK’s dogs and had four offspring. I guess they call it animal diplomacy.
The love of animals is not necessarily a reflection of our animosity towards our fellow human beings. But it certainly conveys a certain unease and suspicion that’s somehow mitigated by the invocation of animalistic qualities. Ingenuity (and, frankly, bizarreness) knows no bounds when it comes to inventing nicknames and words of affection between lovers. Virtually all of them are borrowed from the animal kingdom (just like a lot of swearwords), which is pretty strong evidence for its widespread appeal.
So when we say “bring out the human factor”, we actually mean “animalize it”. It makes things as neat and unambiguous as they can be.