Animals in Heaven?

Animals in Heaven?

Are animals in Heaven? If so, what animals? Is there a limit to which animals? What are the Catholic Church's views on animals in Heaven. I have wondered this to extent ever since last year, March 28, when my dog passed away. As a result, I will investigate and discover and explain what knowledge there is on this topic.

According to the Hebrew teaching, animals are permitted into Heaven because they are defined with a soul. This is true because the Hebrew "spirit" or "breath" is given to all living things; therefore, anything with the spirit contains a soul from God. Also, do animals have free will or are they just fixed to what they were put on earth to do? This is the question in which defines whether animals go to heaven or not. 

The teaching of the Catholic Church is no, they do not have free will and intellect. Therefore, animals do not go to heaven or have an afterlife. The teaching on this is that God gives us, humans, graces that he does not give to animals. The major ones being human intellect and free will. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the "souls" of animals can not survive death just by their composition. In hand, even though they shape who we are and we elevate these pets to a higher level because of the connection we feel with them they still are not physically elevated in a sense of humanity to be able to go to Heaven.

However, the fact that animals can not go to Heaven also results in the fact that animals deemed "evil" can not go to Hell. Therefore, evil animals such as snakes, mosquitoes, etc. can not go to hell. These animals may be able to alter, hamper, and harm someone during life as they are alive as well but they do not have an afterlife. They have no afterlife for the same reason that facilitating animals do not go to heaven according to the Catholic Church, the nature of an animal's "soul" is not fit to survive death. Therefore, neither good or evil animals exist in Heaven or Hell.