Sapience is awareness of that awareness. I'm not saying anything new here. Animals are genetically programmed like computers. Humans, by contrast, employ their sapience to assess what they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel, then act on that assessment, not just to insure survival, but to enhance its quality. More to the point in this context, purpose , another product of sapience, is a phenomenon as unique to humanity as rights.
People are the only thing in the universe with purpose.
Philosopher Robert LeFevre observed that, in moral terms, there are just two kinds of entity in the universe, people and property. Animals are not people. Animals are groceries. They're leather and fur coats. They're for medical experiments and galloping to hounds.