Obviously, Zellin, but why would anyone in their right mind ever cast Speak With Animals as a regular spell in a setting where there is no time factor and 10 minutes or 5 hours or 2 seconds are impossible to tell apart?
No, the spell has the ritual tag and since we're never going to cast it in combat anyway, there's no reason whatsoever that it costs a spell slot to cast it.
For example that difference could be represented in an option to cast this spell after the conversation started. Warlock with Beast speech casts for free, someone else at the cost of a spell slot since it's doubtful that an animal will wait while you perform a 10 minutes ritual.
