If you are a creature with consciousness, you are (not “have”) a soul. Key is “according to their kind”, so all creatures/souls are not created alike. May be why the term “higher animals” was coined.
No one will convince me that our pets aren’t souls, though in a different way than we are. I was granted the privilege at the passing of my first cat (who’d been with me for half my life of 36 years then, and had taught me the meaning of unconditional love for the first time), not to actually see his soul depart, but to witness our other 3 cats watch it. I was in a middle-of-the-night vigil, watching him sleep on a bunch of blankets on the living room floor, the other cats nestled around me, when all of a sudden, at once, they all got up on their feet and stared at the same spot above him, following its motion higher up until it disappeared. At that moment I knew, and didn’t have to feel for a heartbeat to tell that he was gone. A week later, I had a very realistic dream about him being his young self again, and in good hands. I never had those experiences again, and I’ve had dozens of cats since. It was as if God was showing me something, though.
Just the convictions of an uneducated person, other than in the School of Life...
semantics, you know what I meant.
The difference between humans and animals is not a "Quality" of the soul in my opinion, but the fact that people are created in the image of God. This is why we can speak, create on a higher level, worship, sin, and be redeemed. Animals lack the capacity for sin and salvation obviously, but they have a soul. The scripture used the exact same word "nephesh" in describing both animals and humans. This, of course, proves nothing. It is speculation based on the wording of the Hebrew. However, we all know they have one. It is comforting to know.