@PonyPon
I can see why that would make a difference, but on my own end I… well, to be honest don’t really understand why it matters. He’s portrayed as being just as intelligent and self-aware as every other character – as far as personhood goes, he’s no different from all the other intelligent beings. In a setting with only one intelligent race, or a few, I’d understand the issue – but the entire premise of the show is based around real-world animals that talk. Chief Thunderhooves is a perfectly regular American buffalo… who also talks. Zecora is a a cartoon of a real-life zebra… who talks and makes potions. Sic-Twi’s was a regular dog for the first half or so of
Rainbow Rocks, yes, but that is no longer the case and has not been the case for a significant majority of his time as a character.
I think, personally, the issue is not so much Spike’s status as an uplifted animal in and of itself but that he’s an uplifted animal in a world filled with humans – all other things aside, the two versions of Spike are the only talking, sapient beings in the EG world who are anything besides physically humans. I honestly don’t think this would be as much of an issue if Spike the Formerly Regular Dog lived in Equestria. There, he’d just be a talking but otherwise normal animal among many, many others.