Do Pets go to Heaven? (Jan. '01)
No, but let me explain why this is so. When we speak of “going to heaven” we generally mean sharing in God’s immortal life in His kingdom. Being immortal (possessing a life which has no end) is a characteristic of God Himself, one of several which He has chosen to share with us — Man (male and female, cf. Gen. 1:27) — His most special creation.
The simple reason why the answer to your question is “No” is that Man has an immortal soul but animals do not. We can read about this in the Book of Genesis (which means the Book of the Beginning). For the first five days of Creation all things came into being merely by the command of God: “Let there be… light (1:3) … a firmament (1:6) … waters and dry land (1:9) … grass and herbs and trees (1:11) … the sun and moon and planets and stars (1:14) … creatures in the sea and fowls of the air (1:20) … and animals upon the earth (1:25).” God spoke the word and these things instantaneously came to be. On the sixth day, however, God didn’t say , “Let there be,” but rather “Let us make” (1:26). God Himself bent down and with His own hands lovingly fashioned Man in His own image and likeness (1:27), and enlivened him with His very own breath (2:7).
Of all creatures, only Man has this intimate relationship with God. The Blessed Elder Joseph the Hesychast (1898-1959) often reminded his children of Man’s unique relationship with the creator, saying, “Don’t you know that you are the very breath of God?” When the holy God-seer Moses wrote that we were created by God in His “image and likeness,” it means that God shared with us some of His own characteristics (some actual, some potential), one of which is immortality. I’m sure that your pet is wonderful (mine was!), but you are more than wonderful — you are a child of God, created in His own image and likeness, created to share immortal life with Him in His kingdom.