Yes, this is attested in Classical Latin, particularly in the case of the non-human serving as an agent (taking the preposition). Allen and Greenough, §405:
The ablative of the agent is commonest with nouns denoting persons, but it occurs also with names of things or qualities when these are conceived as performing an action and so are partly or wholly personified
As an example, they provide:
nē virtūs ab audāciā vincerētur (Sest. 92), that valor might not be overborne by audacity.
Similarly, Bennet (§216) offers:
hostēs ā fortūnā dēserēbantur, the enemy were deserted by Fortune
ā canibus laniātus est, he was torn to pieces by dogs.
Gildersleeve, §401, asserts that the substitution is permissible in both directions, that is, that a human can be objectified as well:
When the Instrument is personified and regarded as an Agent, or the Agent is regarded as an Instrument, the constructions are reversed. [...] So iacent suīs tēstibus, [Cicero, Pro Milone, 47] they are cast by their own witnesses; or, they are cast, their own men being witnesses.
Summary
These grammars provide numerous examples of the personification of a non-human as the agent in the ablative of agent, in which the preposition ab/ā is applied.
Examples for the objectification of a human person via the ablative of instrument, with no preposition, are apparently less frequent, but the construction is still permissible.