"The snake was the most cunning animal that the Lord God had made." This line from GenesisOrigin or beginning. The book of Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and opens with one of the most famous first sentences of any literary work: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." describes a talking serpentSnake. who convinces Adam and Eve to eat forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

But the serpent in the Garden of Eden is not the only animal character that everybody knows. AesopAncient Greek writer (c.620 - 564BC) credited with hundreds of fables: short stories telling a moral lesson, often featuring animals.'s fables feature deceptiveMisleading. foxes and cocky hares. Winnie-the-Pooh's friend Eeyore is a sad donkey.

We have always read human emotions in the animals we see around us. Dogs are loyal. Cats are snobby. Owls are wise. Elephants never forget.

And they can be funny, too. As shown in this year's Comedy Pet Photography Competition, we capture our pets' hilarious moments to feel closer to them and include them in our humour.

We even make time to look after virtual animals. It was announced this week that Neopets, an online game originally launched in 1999, will make a $4m (£3.1m) return to screens.

On Neopets, users adopt a series of virtual pets and have to care for them. Launched in 1999, it had logged one trillion views by 2011.

In some ways, the concept may strike you as strange. Can people really form emotional attachments to animals that do not even exist?

Some go even further, questioning whether we are too attached even to our real-life animals. We like to think they love us as much as we love them. But experts say it is dangerous to attribute human emotions to animal minds.

This is called anthropomorphismActing like objects or animals have human qualities. , and many scientists believe it stops us from understanding just how different animals are to us. One study found that children who thought of animals as like them were less likely to fear dangerous wild animals.

But others point out that a lot of the science does provide evidence that animals experience feelings similar to ours. We know that chimpanzees can hold grudges, monkeys know how to share, and elephants grieve.

Yes: We humanise animals to make us feel less alone in the universe. In reality, our specific emotions are built on social conditioning, language and culture - none of which are the same for animals.

No: It does no real harm to think of our pets as having real and rich emotions, especially as it may encourage us to treat them better and more sensitively. Nobody is going to approach a lion or a tiger because it looks sad.

Or... The consensus that scientists have reached is that humans experience the most extreme form of emotions, but that it appears that other animals feel them on some level too. But it all depends on the species.

Genesis - Origin or beginning. The book of Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and opens with one of the most famous first sentences of any literary work: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

Serpent - Snake.

Aesop - Ancient Greek writer (c.620 - 564BC) credited with hundreds of fables: short stories telling a moral lesson, often featuring animals.

Deceptive - Misleading.

Anthropomorphism - Acting like objects or animals have human qualities.