...But worse, much worse than that, it implies that a machine could never be "intelligent" or "creative" or even be considered as sentient. This to me seems absurd, I think it's perfectly reasonable to have sentient machines and for that I will argue 
Pure science fiction, the idea of sentient machines.
Machines that mimic sentient behavior so well that it seems realistic?
Sure.
Now your point on animals?
I wholly agree, they deserve consideration.