Yes, this quest isn't harmless. Most of the time nothing happens, but I've had one bear attack (with the dog saving my character from the bear, essentially), and one wolf attack (which was fatal). On top of that, I recently did a robber quest over a month after a wounded adventurer quest, and as fate would have it, the robbers were fairly close to that shelter. After having gathered a posse to deal with the robbers (and locating them before that), I headed towards the area when it got late night and I decided to sleep at that shelter. Woke up in the middle of the night by a wolf attack, so the bugger was still there, which I hadn't expected. I had to dismiss a posse member after that, as I didn't want a badly injured member turn into a dead one in the "real" fight.
And yes, the "calm down", "attack", and "flee" comments sometimes do not make sense. I've had the comment "attack" when the animal starts to flee, etc.