I certainly know that animals are very loving - towards good people. They can sense who has good intentions and who doesn't. My late cat was ever so loving, and I find that generally animals (and children) are drawn to me because they know that I love animals and children.

But yes they can also hate, which they do when they encounter an evil person. I've seen my late cat hit the roof when an evil person came to the house.

I have also recently come across a story where an octopus took a dislike to a lab worker to such an extend that she left. When she returned after a year for a visit, the octopus remembered and soaked her in water again in the same way he had done before. Octopus are known to be very emotional.

Animals have a soul the way we do, but they are so much purer than humans because animals don't hate anyone without reason, and they don't enjoy another's suffering the way so many humans do. Animals are prefect as they are and therefore don't have to go through the cycle of reincarnation - though some do get reincarnated if they want to be with their human parent again.