yukkuri are living beings
A yukkuri will sometimes try to argue "Yukkuris are living beings!" or "Yukkuris are alive!" to discourage a human from abusing/killing them, arguing that their lives are precious and shouldn't be killed so casually or arguing that they deserve kindness and empathy just like any other living beings.
Humans usually counters with "Yukkuris are just talking manjuus, they're not living beings".
After all, yukkuris are food and they are standing on the ground. And what do we call food that was dropped to the ground? Trash.