Okay, but picture a fox approaching a henhouse and hearing the word “danger. Large threat.” In no uncertain terms in language he fully comprehends. He doesn’t need to alert the dog to know a member of his kin that he cannot see knows something he doesn’t.

Imagine a line of buoys broadcasting and listening for migratory whale calls to properly time gaps in shipping lanes, able to say “loud scary thing soon” and warn pods.

Teaching dolphins to assist with garbage cleanup for food in special collection docks using words like “give junk for food.”

We’ve learned to communicate with a select few animals already. Dogs, for instance, have millenia of experience learning our body language and vice versa, and we still hold dominion over them while elevating them in our ranking of sentience over, say, insects. If any other being can form the same level of two-way communication, we should treat them with more respect.

Lastly, imagine if extraterrestrials used your line of reasoning. We would be very fortunate indeed if our difference in mental capacity and communication skills were that between a human and a whale or a gorilla.