You're making an awful lot of assumptions that contradict our scientific understanding of animals. A being without self-awareness would only have thoughts that are basically instinct, i.e. 'need food', and those thoughts are in no way equally valuable to more complex thoughts.
I’m not positive that’s true though. There’s so much we think about the world that seems to only be an extension of how we experience the world, but can’t be verified at all. Such as the idea that without an “I” as we experience it, there is no meaningful awareness. I’m open to animals having experiences which are different from mine yet still worth something, and generally worth preserving in the way we typically believe we should with, say, a cat or a dog.
