As a precursor to Animal Farm, Kipling's https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/tale/her-majestys-servants.htm https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/tale/her-majestys-serv

As a precursor to Animal Farm, Kipling's https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/tale/her-majestys-servants.htm https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/tale/her-majestys-servants.... (1894) features a number of animals caught up in state bureaucracy. The other animals have nicknamed the elephant "Two Tails", and it explains that it is afraid in battle because it can think about what happens when a shell bursts, and ruminates upon whether it might not be better off back at home in the forest rather than here in the army...