I presume you agree that humans are mammals, yes?
mam·mal
ˈmaməl/
noun
noun: mammal; plural noun: mammals
a warm-blooded vertebrate animal of a class that is distinguished by the possession of hair or fur, the secretion of milk by females for the nourishment of the young, and (typically) the birth of live young.
Why the reticence to acknowledge that humans are animals?
God didn’t create humans in the image of animals, He created humans in His image- with a soul- something animals lack A soul that is capable of communion with our Creator. While humans and animals share physical characteristics, it is the souls of mankind that separate us from the animal kingdom having been created in the image of
God- animalkind was not created in the image of God
Speaking of the broader image, Abraham Kuyper, Jr., writes:
This image of God cannot be lost since, if man can lose it, he would at the moment of losing it, cease to be a human being. The image of God in the wider sense . . . has reference to the human in man, to that whereby man, in distinction from all other creatures, is man and not an angel or an animal or a plant.24