the trust which even wild animals will often place in humans is evidence of the imago dei https://twitter.com/animal0lovers/status/1327631630027001856

cruelty to animals, specially household or intelligent animals, is heinous because its a violation of an inborn reverence instilled in them by God for those created in the image of God

And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth
Genesis 9:2a

God sometimes removes this protection and uses beasts as a curse on the wicked:

I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
Lev 26:22

A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast:
Proverbs 12:10a

The life of a beast is virtually nothing in comparison with mankind, but it is still more than nothing, for if it had no value then of what effectualness would the blood offerings of the Old Testament have been, imperfect and incomplete as they were?