There are some stray animals, but there's no implication that they've been abandoned. Players have the option to abandon pets that they no longer want, but they don't need to if they don't want to.
Nothing on-screen, but you can encounter a book called "Gordana Diary" in some of the ruins you explore, I suggest not reading it if this is a trigger.
Some of the quests involving Amirah revolve around people being enamored by her beauty, and coming in droves to Sandrock to buy her picture. Her brother realizes his mistake and you have to get the pictures back from the "pervs" that bought them. It's played for laughs.
You are expected to kill some wild animals to progress, sometimes in self defense and other times to gather ingredients. These animals generally resemble Yaks, Chicken, Rats, Scorpions, etc. They collapse and then disappear into a puff of smoke after being defeated.