There are christian and other religious nutjobs who think only humans have souls, and the only purpose animals have is to become food for us. I'm not at all surprised by the grieving and other emotions that animals go through. They have many of the same feelings that humans do, they're just not as intelligent as most humans. I read somewhere an adult dog has about the same IQ as a typical 3-year old human, but there are species that are more intelligent than dogs, such as dolphins, pigs and some primates.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL