Cats and dogs have more rights than other animals for seemingly arbitrary reasons too. At the end of the day, its all whatever we decide is matters.
It's long been known that certain animals are far more charismatic than others. Dogs and cats should never suffer, while thing like rats, mosquitos and wild boars are to be terminated on sight. Things such as hippos, squirrels and food sources are somewhere in between.
How much of that is us imposing our impression on their internal being? Are you certain that if we know enough about bees, mosquitoes and wild boars life we wouldn't empathize with them more?
Should we not allocate rights based on varying levels of consciousness and sentience as emergent phenomena?