If you claim that humans chew their food because their throats are uniquely vulnerable to choking, you have also claimed that animals without such awkward throats don't need to chew their food.

Putting things another way, just a few minutes of observation are sufficient to demonstrate that running the air intake past the esophagus is so irrelevant to the purpose of chewing that the absence of that problem does not affect the behavior in any way.

Isn’t that logic in reverse?

No. The two claims are contrapositives of each other:

1. Chewing -> bad throat

2. Good throat -> no chewing

Bad throat -> chewing required.

Good throat -> chewing not required for that reason but possibly for other reason.

Chewing -> bad throat possible, but not required.

Not chewing -> bad throat badge not unlocked.

> If you claim that humans chew their food because their throats are uniquely vulnerable to choking, you have also claimed that animals without such awkward throats don't need to chew their food.

No, I haven't. That quite simply does not follow, at all. There is to much variation in the definitions and permutations of chewing, throat design, air intake design, types of foods eaten, and digestive systems to make that leap.