In general, all of the short-duration, uncontrollable summons/commands are incredibly useful precisely because they are on-demand meat shields: having the enemy attack something else while you finish them off is pretty useful, particularly if you and your followers aren't cutting it. Strength in numbers and all that.
But Command Animal is particularly effective for two reasons:
It affects nearly every animal in the game, and boy there are a lot of animals. You'll be hard pressed not to find a place outdoors where you can't use it.
When fighting a group of animals, it takes one of them out of the picture in addition to helping you attack the rest. So if it's 3 vs. 1 against you, commanding an animal makes it a fair fight.
It's a decent substitute for the Animal Allegiance shout, so if you were planning on using it, it frees up your shout slot for something else.
Playing around with summons might not be your play-style: even conjuration isn't for everyone. But if you're looking for a way to manipulate fights to your advantage instead of sneaking around or straight up attacking, Command Animal is a great racial ability.