Dolphins, Chimps and other Plankton

"Humans are distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom in that we are self-aware to a degree that allows us to determine our own destiny (within the laws of nature, of course.)"

Now there's a faith-based statement if ever I heard one.

Self-determination/Free-Will is a necessary axiom to accept as a preamble to all moral reasoning. However that doesn't mean that there's any basis to believe that it actually exists. Whether grounded in the block-universe of Physics, or as a quandary in Philosophy; it would seem impossible to find reason to believe that we actually choose.

All I can say is that operating as if Free Will were true works better.

"We have an incredibly complex communication system and we can get our ideas across for the most part. If we couldn't, we could never have built civilization."

Or Chat Rooms in which we endlessly debate whether we can truly be understood by others as we understand ourselves. Heck, anyone starting out, "You know what I meant," has already lost THAT argument.

"There are obvious distinctions between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom in terms of degree of intelligence and self-awareness."

LOL. Why yes, there's HUMANS, and then there's Dolphins, Chimps and OTHER Plankton.
Your determination to treat the "rest of the animal kingdom" as though that were a meaningful category reminds me of all the racists who dismiss the most genetically diverse population region on Earth because everyone in sub-Saharan Africa looks "black" to white folks.

The idea that animals are here to serve our ends begins with Adam being given "dominion" over them and ought to be treated like any other set of religious statements.

If personhood matters, then it must transcend the merely Human. As someone who has rambled on a bit about The Singularity, you ought to understand this.

The capacity for moral reasoning depends on a few things. One is empathy. Another is the idea that there is a "future" and not an "eternal now;" this allows for planning and the notion of consequences.

Some animals seem to display these qualities while others don't. Stolid indifference to any distinctions among the non-human seems like your way of trying to qualify all by the properties of the least.

Dante