Sentience

Sentience is the ability to perceive or feel things. On Foxine, sentient animals can talk in one of the official languages of the planet, as well as the language of their species. It is against the law to hunt, kill, or eat sentient animals on Foxine, and is punishable by death.

The opposite of sentience is silence. Silent animals cannot speak, and are allowed to be killed. An example is Startalon.

There is also a subcategory of sentience called sentilence. Sentilent animals can understand human language, but cannot speak it. An example is Saladin.

Most animal species on Foxine are mostly silent. There can be some single animals who are sentient or sentilent, but only a few. An exception is the daagmot, where most are sentient, and only a few are silent. There are no sentilent daagmots. Another is the leapdog, where all are silent. There are no sentient or sentilent leapdogs.