The Mekhilta raises an objection to the theory that the four-and-five payment applies only to animals that are sacrificed on the altar. If that were the rule, then a blemished animal — which cannot be offered as a sacrifice — should be exempt from the four-and-five payment when stolen, slaughtered, and sold. But in fact, a thief who steals a blemished beast does pay four or five times its value.
The Mekhilta resolves this by noting that a blemished beast's "kind" — the species of sheep or cattle — is sacrificed on the altar, even though that specific animal is not. The four-and-five payment is tied to the species, not the individual animal.
But what about a non-domesticated animal — a wild beast? Its kind is never sacrificed on the altar. Neither the individual creature nor its species has any connection to Temple worship. For this reason, the Torah specifies "in place of the ox" and "in place of the sheep" — using the words tachath, meaning "in place of." These specific words limit the four-and-five payment to oxen and sheep (and their related species), excluding wild animals entirely.
The Mekhilta has constructed a precise legal boundary. Domesticated livestock — whether blemished or unblemished — falls within the four-and-five penalty because the species is connected to the altar. Wild animals fall outside it because neither the individual nor the species has any sacrificial connection.