Are Animals People?

If you do not meet all the criteria for personhood, does that mean you are not a person?

    When we think about the case of Happy the Elephant, she was illegally incarcerated just because she was deemed more intelligent than her other elephant counterparts. Animals like Happy should be recognized as persons because of their emotional intelligence, sentience, moral reasoning, and communication skills. We tend to underestimate animals, thinking they aren't smart, can't understand us, and don't know what they're doing. They know how to care for their young, navigate their environments, and interact with other animals in situations of threat or peace.  They know what to do with their babies, their niche, and how to interact with other animals in case of threats or peace. Even though we humans can't understand them, they have their other language and should be deemed as people too. Their just in a different physical form. Think about humans that speak a different language, or even a native language that many of us don't understand. They're still human, right?! We treat them as humans and as beings that think. So why not animals as well. Any living thing that meets at least one or two criteria of personhood should be seen as a person. Of course, we draw a line for abiotic beings since they don't have feelings, like plants, rocks, fossils, bodies of water, etc. Yet, situations in which animals are deemed as not a person is just wrong because we are giving way to mistreating them. Stop animal cruelty because they are people too with feelings!