I’m going to take the radically unpopular and politically uncorrrect point of view and say, “no”. Certainly no more than a rock or a tree or a river. One can argue that such things, and even animals, are valuable in one way or another, but they have no inherent rights, and certainly no ‘rights’ in a legal sense that could be defended in a court of law.
Giving animals rights starts going down a very shaky road. Dogs are relatively smart animals. But how far down the animal kingdom do you go in assigning rights? Does a rabbit have rights? Does a mouse? Does a rat? Does a domesticated rat have more rights than a wild one? What about ants and cockroaches? Do fire ants have inherent rights? I don’t see that.
What about fish? Does a shark have rights that a guppy doesn’t?
Now, that doesn’t mean that we should treat them badly – certainly not. Man, in order to be humane and decent, should treat animals well. I have no issue with that at all. Just because we can act like shits doesn’t mean we have to.
But the animals themselves do not have rights.