... arising from the belief that humans were created in some god's image.

Personality is a continuum.

Some animals are very intelligent and share many personality traits with humans, for example the great apes, many cetaceans, elephants, parrots, crows, etc..

Dogs, horses, cats, etc., clearly share many personality traits with humans. They can be happy, sad, excited, playful...

If you've ever kept pet rats, they clearly have individual personalities too.

It is perfectly useful, and is not religious in the context I used it.

... inaccurately attribute motives to other people as well.

People also lie to themselves about their own motives and their own behavior.

Anthropomorphism assumes that people exist on a separate plane than animals. That's simply not true.

When I judge someone's behavior according to my own experience, then yeah, I'm guilty of anthropomorphism, same as I would be if I judged an animal according to my own experience.

For example, let's look at birds that tend to mate for life. Are they "married?" No they are not.

I happen to be the sort of bird that mates for life and I'm married.

Things would go terribly wrong if I conflated "marriage" and "tend to mate for life" while making scientific observations of human behavior in general or the behavior of other animals.

Here's where it get's scary:

We all know or have heard of people who celebrate dog "marriage," if only to explain to children how it came to be that a female dog had puppies, and in extreme cases, with wedding dresses, tuxedos, cakes, and everything.

Some of those dog weddings are tongue-in-cheek, others I'm not so sure... (Youtube is not your friend.)

You might call that anthropomorphism.

But there are plenty of human weddings that are occur in similar circumstances, the couple forced along by social pressures outside of themselves. Is that anthropomorphism?

I reject the concept of anthropomorphism as it applies to animals. I don't think it's useful.

Anthropomorphism in regards to inanimate things is simply unnecessary.

I sometimes joke that I hate my cars and they hate me, but I don't think anyone seriously attributes motivations like "hatred" to mechanical objects. The electric door locks in my car, for example, usually work, but sometimes they randomly don't. It's not because my car hates me. Instead there is some fault in the system and the problem is not quite annoying enough that I've made anything beyond minimal efforts to track it down.

Sometimes our dogs disobey me, and for many of the same reasons my children would sometimes disobey me when they were young. They just don't want to obey me in that moment, they just don't feel like it. That's not anthropomorphism. Our dogs have a range of personalities too, just like children. Some are always eager to please, others (like our husky...) not so much. If our husky doesn't want to do something you ask of him he just sits there quietly looking at you. He understands perfectly, he just doesn't want to.

She is the most loving, caretaking companion I have had -- and I have had many pets. Even a border collie, which I also loved.

I'm teaching her agility.

We have a new Aussie Shepherd rescue who doesn't like the cats, is jealous. He demands and gives lots and lots of love and attention - it's part of the nature of the breed. He, barks at the cats when they come in to cuddle with us. He's very jealous, even after almost 2-1/2 months. We are trying to acclimate him that it's ok for us to hold the cats, but he's resisting it. He doesn't attack them or chase them anymore, but comes up and puts his mouth right next to them and shrieks loudly to scare them away.

He also plays too aggressively at times, especially with my husband who is big dude and will indulge this. Finley (the dog) runs really fast and jumps at you and has knocked me off my feet onto the couch several times. He's a really smart dog and does want to please us, so I'm going to talk to some trainers and see if that would help improve his meeting people & playing skills and reduce his jealousy. He's not rough with me anymore because he saw it made me mad and I would not play with him at all afterwards, but he's not learning yet to transfer that to others. Hope the trainers can help.

I guess that's better than attacking them or chasing them.

I no longer worry about him hurting the cats, when we aren't right with them, he will walk up and sniff them and be fine and so will they. He's just jealous of us, probably because his previous owners were dicks and kept him crated 22-23 hrs.Day. But the cats don't like getting shrieked at, so only come to us to cuddle in den occasionally because that's where Finley is. I make sure to give them attention by going to their spots and loving and brushing them, but things are not still not the way they should be. Don't know if this jealousy can be trained out of him, but we are trying to do it ourselves until we can find a trainer who can help.

which starts with their unparalleled ability to make themselves comfortable. A lot to be said for that.

Really? That author writes that cats are "more distant and apathetic relationship to us", clearly he doesn't know anything about cat. I've been blessed, and besotted, with many wonderful cats over my lifetime. They were at least as affectionate as my dogs. No, they probably aren't slavishly obedient, but some breeds of dogs are just as independent.

My cats follow me wherever I go, room to room, watching everything I do intently, or trying to "help". Some will play catch and fetch to the point of exhaustion (mine, not theirs), and their antics keep me laughing. If I'm feeling kinda low, I get cuddles, head bumps, purring, kisses and hugs to cheer me up. Around guests, my cats are aloof and suspicious, rarely coming to greet new visitors. That the perception people have if they don't have cats of their own.

The author seems focused on the control, obedience and domination of pets, as if they were automatons and not valued for their own characters and the bond that we share with our cherished companion animals. I don't know if my cats love me, but I love them and they make me feel loved and needed, what else needs to be said?

because then I wouldn't have to peel one of them off my lap every time I wanted to do something, and I could walk around the house without being followed everywhere, and maybe I could even turn over in bed without disturbing the cats who are sleeping on me.

like cats better than dogs. My 4 sweet kitties are the greatest. I don't dislike dogs, I'm just a cat person.

...Paul Fussell wrote something similar, if I recall correctly, in his book "Class". I have to see if I can find the passage.

Cats don't remember shit.