I also remember a "hint" that someone from production team revealed during an interview very early on, that bringing the owlbear into camp might have dire consequenses. Like, Owly eating Scratch. This was kind of confirmed by books or papers you found in the game, which warned that an olbear as pet would first eat all of your provisions and then you.
So in my first EA plays I never invited Owly to camp out of fear it would wreak havoc.
So maybe this was also a "joke" launched to test the player, or something that they changed their mind on, later in EA.
