According to Native American customs, the Spirit lives in everything, breathes through every part of creation, and dwells within all living things. This belief ascribes souls not only to animate creatures, but also to plants and other types of life. Hunters carried extra food with them to give to any slain animal while thanking it for its sacrifice, making sure its spirit would not get hungry on its journey into the next life. Many other religions believe that human souls enter animals - such as cows or ravens - when their human body has died. Others believe that souls are not species-specific, and that anyone could have been anything in a past life and that the soul itself is the only constant. Perhaps the way to determine whether or not animals have souls is to explore the definition of a soul.

The Soul as Being

The aforementioned Native American beliefs give a soul to everything in existence, because the Spirit is in everything. Humans have souls. Other animals have souls. Plants have souls. Rocks have souls. The very earth itself has a deep, matronly soul. Anything in which the Spirit moves has a soul because it is a part of everything else. This belief means that either everything or nothing has a soul.

The Soul as the Breath of Life

Souls are said to need to breathe to survive, and in this everything that is commonly considered "alive" has a soul. Everything that moves has a soul. This includes animals of every kind. This definition also includes plants, which breathe all the time but move so slowly that no one ever sees it, though over weeks or years the plant grows visibly.

The Soul as Self-Awareness

This is where the definitions start to get a little tricky. What constitutes self-awareness? Humans can think to themselves, "I am me," and even those who do not know exactly who "me" is are considered to have a soul. Are animals soulless simply because they cannot make this statement in any way a human can understand? Animals react to pain, learn from experiences, and have individual personalities. Would these be possible if an animal didn't know that it exists, and that it is an entity apart from all the others around it? Even in hive societies, such as those formed by ants or bees, each individual goes about its own tasks independent of the others, and must communicate with the others in order to keep everything running smoothly.

The Soul as the Ability to Feel Emotion

People who insist that animals do not have a soul often cite the inability of animals to feel emotion. As science has advanced and interaction with all manner of animals has increased in human society, this assertion has been proven wrong. Cats mourn over lost owners. Dogs become unhappy when they know they've displeased the human members of their pack, and harbor a deep, loving connection with their humans. Elephants re-live traumatic experiences in ways that would be called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in humans. The list goes on. There are many species that are different enough from humans that emotions cannot be measured, though the ability to monitor brain waves is slowly unlocking that mystery in those species.

All-in-all, every popularly-excepted definition of a soul includes animals. We are humans, and as such we perceive things, think, and express emotions in ways that are different from all other species. Every species does this. Our own limitations in communicating with and understanding other species, does not automatically mean that we have something they don't. All living things deserve consideration and respect from others. Because humans are the most destructive species on earth, it is up to us to look at our own faults and curtail the damage being done to all the other species in the world. Does this put us above them in any way? Does this give us a greater right to salvation and an afterlife? The Bible was written for humans, the only species to have sinned against God, and as such the teachings are geared toward the needs of a human soul. This does not mean that non-humans don't have one.