The Moral Worth of Animals

What is it to you that does give a being moral worth? What's the metric? What needs to be within an animal? And even if we could not know if a certain animal actually has it, what would you be looking for to say this is something that should fall under our umbrella of untouchability? I'd say sentience and pain are the two factors. So a consciousness, but also an ability to suffer. Those are the two kind of metrics that I would go by. Because I think coupled with an ability to suffering comes a preference to avoid that.