Animal Souls

I have noticed that Chrisitans seem to differ in the believe of whether or not animals have souls. It broke my heart to pieces when my youth director told me my best friend has no soul, but my friend and her dad pointed out that nowhere in the Bible does it say such. I also see on TV where after the passing of an animal, the person bears a smile in the belief that their pet is now happy in Heaven, although only about half of these people are confirmed to be Christians.

So whether you are Christian or not, what do you believe? Discuss.

I believe that if people truly do not believe that animals do not have souls then they are justifying their pre-empetive disrespect for their right to life.

I think animals have souls, it really makes sense to me. They live, they can be loved, they love .. So yeah, I think they do have souls.
You don't need to be able to speak to have a soul, in my opinion.

I think animals have souls. Like Milanos said, they love and can be loved. I think all living things have souls, actually.. not sure about plants though. :S

Great points. They says there are trees in Heaven, but I don't think tree GO to Heaven when they die.

I don't really know about the whole plantlife thing. Plants are classed as living things, but do they live? Do they have souls if animals do?

I have another point on the main question.
I think animals do have souls, because we ourselves ARE animals. We may be more intelligent than other animals, but we still are mammals and therefore if you believe we have souls, animals have souls.

That is quite true. Surely animals ought to be able to go to heaven as well. D: And at least most animals probably worked hard in their lives so they could have food, and raise families, and so on. Not too different from us even if they may have different ways to do it.

Anyhow, I might be lonely there if those close to me hadn't arrived yet.

I can't imagine a tree in heaven. But I wish there were. Trees provide good shade and also good sticks to whack people with.