Do animals have souls?

Over 30 years ago I overheard two separate conversations by coworkers, just days apart. Aaron was lamenting the loss of his hunting dog, a Golden Retriever: “Best dog I ever had. He was a real friend. I'm really busted up about him dyin’. My only consolation is someday I'll see him in heaven.”

A couple of days later Rand was bragging about a bull elk he’d hunted and shot a few days before. He was telling the story in all its gory detail.

Fast forward to last week when my coworker Mel was talking about his upcoming hunting trip. He was discussing where he was going to camp. He then went into tales of hunts past, and the elk he’d bagged. I asked him, “Do animals have souls?”

Mel, who like Aaron  is a religious person, stopped. “I don't know. I suppose they do.”

“I mean,” I continued, remembering Aaron’s remark about someday seeing his dog in heaven, “if your favorite dog or horse [he owns both] died, would you expect to see them in heaven?”

“Well...I'm not sure, but yeah, I guess I would.”

Unlike Aaron, 30 years earlier, Mel had never taken the time to consider such a possibility. “So, if your dog or horse has a soul, and is able to be with you in heaven, then what about the elk you've killed?”

Silence.

More silence.

“...I don't think like that. Animals like elk are here for food.”

“And some people eat dogs and some people eat horses, too. What if you get to heaven and your favorite dog and horse are being stampeded over by the herd of bull elk you've shot and eaten?”

“C’mon, you're messin’ with me now. That isn’t gonna happen.”

“All I'm saying is that from a viewpoint of whether dogs and horses have souls and can make it to heaven, then why not elk? Why not all the birds that ever lived, all of the alligators, or even dinosaurs?”

A wave of dismissal. “I’m not gonna debate this stuff.”

“There's nothing to debate. If you believe your dog has a soul then that would mean that all animals have souls.”

Mel left the room. He hasn’t mentioned the subject to me again, but I wondered if he was going to ask his clergyman if animals had souls. After all, he missed church to hunt an elk this past weekend. It might work on his guilt feelings. As for me, I don’t know whether animals have souls because I don't know if humans have souls, or if we do, if a soul is something different than what we think.

And yeah, I was messin’ with him. It's just the way I am.