Do animals have souls?

So I was pretty bothered the last few days by a comment made in the kitchen at work the other day about the wasted effort put into veterinary care for animals that don't even have a soul. I decided to do a little reading on the subject, since I had heard this thought before as it is a widespread belief of Jehovah's Witnesses, but I had never much dwelled on it before or gave it much consideration. Here's what I found...

First off my own thoughts are that God made animals even before humans on the 4th and 5th day of creation. (Genesis 1:20-22) I also noticed that in my KJ version that on the 20th verse there is a little word noted at the end of the verse: soul.
There are in fact many times in the Bible where animals are mentioned as spiritual creatures and that alone tells me that they must hold a special place with our Creator.

Jumping ahead to Genesis 9:4-5 we read about the importance that blood has to God. This is why he commanded men not to it eat it. The blood belongs to God as it represents the life/soul of the living flesh. (Isaiah 17:10-16) In the 14th verse it states that "For it is the life of all flesh". He also commanded men to have respect for the animals and even when sacrificing or slaughtering to do so in a respectful manner according to His instructions. God was not asking for them to sacrifice a bunch of trees, but it was the blood of the animals which offered atonement for their souls before Christ took their place and let Himself be sacrificed.

What other of God's creations on this earth has a level of consciousness, or blood for that matter, but his animals and to a higher degree, humans? It is widely known that animals feel pain, fear, affection, embarrassment, loneliness, and many other characteristic of a living being with a soul. It is simply man's duty set in place by God to watch over them, care for them, respect them and enjoy them as the gift they are.

Although this is a highly debatable topic and I leave anyone to draw their own conclusions given the information available, I still have to argue that even if I knew for a fact that animals did NOT have souls, I’ll be damned if my cat ever breaks her leg or becomes very sick and I dare tell someone that I'd rather not go through the trouble of caring for her injury as she cries in pain and frustration simply because.... "oh, she has no soul, why bother??"


On that note, here's an interesting little blurb I found that kind of gets you wondering...http://www.petsweekly.com/AnimalsSouls.html