Excerpt from:  Fr. Dr. J. Buciora, IN THE BROKEN INNOCENCE OF THE ANIMAL WORLD, AN ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE ON THE END OF LIFE OF OUR PETS, Winnipeg, 2018 

….According to St. Basil the Great, one of the greatest Fathers of the Eastern Church of the fourth century, some animals have the ability to express their internal feelings of sadness and joy. According to some contemporary Christian scholars, there exists in the animal world some sort of emotional intelligence that still needs to be researched and evaluated. There also exists the ability to feel pain as humans do and to live in complex social structures. Our present day world contains real life examples of this emotional animal world.  

In a story published on the internet a mother dog was found mourning her puppies: “A mother dog was found abandoned at the side of the road with ‘tears in her eyes’ as she sat next to a carrier bag stuffed with her dead puppies. The heartbreaking sight was witnessed by Paul Skinner, who was cycling in the village of Midville, Lincolnshire, when he saw what he first thought was a dead bird. But when it started to move he realised that it was a Cocker Spaniel that had been cruelly dumped next to the bodies of her pups. The loyal mother also appeared to be crying. Tory councillor Mr. Skinner explained: “The dog was on its own, sitting licking the contents of a fish and chips carrier bag. The bag contained four dead pups. It was heartbreaking. She had tears in her eyes. I could not believe how anybody could be so devoid of humanity to do something like this.”  

This story portrays the broken animal world with all its tragedies, unequally preserving its original uncondemned innocence. The tears of the mother dog are the emotional expression of the true nature of animals. There is a motherly instinct that characterizes our entire world.  It is here, at this point, that the concept of the soul in animals is the connector between the animal and human worlds. But in this “developed instinct” or “living soul,” there is an absence of one very important aspect. Animals do not have the concept of choice/free will (the capacity to make moral decisions consciously) that differentiates human beings from the animal world. In this particular perspective, the animal world is morally neutral. Animals do not have the ability for rational thinking as is characteristic for human beings.  

According to Saint Maximus, an Orthodox Church Father of the seventh century, “Animals act on impulse (they have urges), but in man there is also “logic”; it is the Grace of God which comes and establishes itself “logically” upon the “soul”.  Although there are some moments when we see in animals forms of emotion or feelings, they do not have the ability, according to our human model of understanding of conscience, to conceptualize between good or evil, or between love and hate. They possess a basic perception of the world that is enough to recognize and serve God: “The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know” (Isaiah 1:3). For some contemporary theologians, “animal soul” is characterized as “life or energy” that doesn’t possess the essence. In the animal world there is no concept or understanding of what it means to be. As such, animals can not be categorized or placed in any of the categories of human choice. This conclusion will have a crucial significance in our further discussion regarding heaven and hell where the concept of choice is foundational. Basic elimination or disregard of this anthropological truth leads this entire discussion to a false conclusion. The concept of free will, as this is distinctly found in the life of man, not only places humanity in the higher sphere of life with rational thinking, but also definitely separates the worlds of animal and man.