LBK said:
Have you ever owned a dog, cat, or horse, Choy?
Yes. I have a cat everyday of my life until I left the Philippines when I was 30 (not too long ago). They all have names, and I love them very much. But I make no false pretenses about their humanity. I would imagine they do have emotion and all, I would even make up dialogues in my mind among them and between them and me. But at the end of the day, I know those are all made up. My brain is naturally very analytic, I do watch and observe and ponder on what I see. Because the Philippines is a tropical country, cats don't stay indoors. There is no winter that would kill them if they stay outdoors. Thus they are semi-feral. It is interesting the dynamics of cats in their natural instincts. I have seen other cats or even my own cats kill kittens of one of my felines, those who they feel will be a threat to their dominance of the territory.
This assigning of human qualities to animals is actually sort of a heresy against the dignity of humans as created by God. I was listening to a podcast regarding this from AFR about a week ago. The guy on the interview said, and I agree with him, that humans are the only one who are capable of a moral choice. If a seal is dying on a beach, only humans will try and rescue it. Other animals will either try to eat it or ignore it.