I just told you why a human cell is not comparable to hair or bones, drop the strawman argument.
No sane person makes the definition of "life" dependent on the "soul", that's ridiculous. Animals have no soul, nor are they self-conscious. Animals still are alive without doubt. Your made-up definition of "life" doesn't withstand any scrutiny.
Animals have souls, it's not the same kind of soul we have but they are aware and self conscious, some animals are intelligent enough to pass the mirror test, I've even seen a cat pass the mirror test (recognizing that it is their own self in the mirror rather than another animal). What animals lack is knowledge of good and evil, and knowledge of God.
WE are the closest they know to their creator and that is intentional. Before the fall, that was our job, our purpose in life, to care for God's creation and be His imagebearers to everything that was created. Because they do not know Him, instead they know us, who bear His image.
After the flood a fear of us was put into them, but every once in awhile you do see wild animals approach humans for help, instinctively knowing that we can help them, and obviously domesticated animals have a relationship of trust with humans, even though we don't deserve it in our fallen state.
But they were created for us to take care of and love. It is itself a means of worshiping God, note that when Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were not commanded to sing praise to the Lord, we were not created to be a choir at least not at first, sometimes I wonder if the plan B after the fall truly was to just make us a choir because some scripture seems to support that and a lot of pastors teach it.. but the original purpose of man was dressing and keeping the garden, including its animals. Obeying God's commands is itself worship, singing and praising isn't the only form of worship.
anyway, sorry for tangent, but while animals do not have an eternal soul, they do have a soul, they are conscious, they can't know Christ, but they can know us.