Originally Posted by ash elemental
I have to say, D&D doesn't make humans look that good. You have spells that let you communicate with animals, which would let you easily find out how sentient they are.
The animals aren't necessarily sentient (sapient?) though. Magic helps bridge the gap between the caster and beast, allowing the caster to gain information from beasts' experiences, but it's usually not taken as Larian's "the beast speak in full sentences and show a human-like level of intelligence." Otherwise, the spells Comprehend Languages, Detect Thoughts, and Tongues would allow animals to communicate with you - but they don't because beasts don't actually have a language and/or high enough intelligence.

Also, irl we eat pigs and pigs are pretty smart.