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Vox ·Smart escape

Does My Pet Have a Soul?

by Casper ter Kuile

Published 2026-09-16 08:00:00-04:00

If animals don't have souls, why does losing a dog feel like losing a family member?

0:00 / 9:34 · Narrator Algieba

Context

Published on 16 September 2026, this piece from Vox opens with a writer crying over a donkey. From there, the essay moves into a question anyone who has ever loved a dog or a cat eventually asks. Why does the bond with an animal feel so overwhelmingly real? Rather than leaning on biology, the writer turns to ancient spiritual traditions to ask whether animals have souls. The result is a quiet space to think about the grief of losing a pet, and what that sorrow reveals about human connection to the rest of the natural world.

Show notes

An examination of how different religious traditions approach the possibility of animal souls. Drawing on interviews with scholars of Christian and Hindu theology and a working pet medium, the discussion connects the grief of losing a family dog to broader questions about human separation from the natural world.

Read on Vox →