To be fair, some languages outside of English reserve “it” (or the equivalent 3rd person neuter pronoun) for “non-living” things. For people whose native language is one of those languages, calling an animal “it” may seem a bit too harsh even while speaking English.

If you’re willing to go the extra mile for OpenStack, I suggest you check out OKD and its virtualization operator. It’s much easier to install and maintain, too