That's a strictly allegorical usage, and any thinking person recognizes that...see my reference above to a person with a "wolf-like" appetite. Anthropomorphizing an animal is to attribute to them complex human motivations, thoughts and feelings onto the strictly instinctual drives that actually motivate them. Social animals, i.e. dogs, or ants for that matter, will congregate, but it's not to celebrate a class reunion, visit old friends, etc. It's for a completely different reason, and it's actually cruel to the animals to pretend otherwise, and to interact with them on that basis. To see the results of this taken to their extreme, one need only look at the Connecticut chimpanzee incident of a few years back.
"I believe the vast majority of people can use the term “personality” applied to their domestic pet animals and not infer “human rights/animal rights” as liberal extremists may..."
That may very well be true, but that was not the meaning used by the author of this thread who used the term "personality" to refer to the unique human quality of personhood. That many chose to alter the author's definition in order to discuss, and vociferously attack his writing, says a lot about their "personalities." I was simply pointing out that they were getting wrapped up in their own definition of the word, and not the writer's.
“Social animals, i.e. dogs, or ants for that matter, will congregate, but it’s not to celebrate a class reunion, visit old friends, etc.......”
Well I don’t think anyone who has a domestic pet would think that either. But most people also don’t confuse a pet animal’s basic survival instincts with their “personality” (ie what makes them a unique animal to them). People who have multiple animals ofthe same kind know all those animals have some basic things in common in terms of general behaviors and what certain signs are pretty universal. But then the person sees that some like certain things more, dislikes other things more, really enjoys certain activities, doesn’t like so much other activities, does a certain thing if you’re late, does a certain thing to express happiness, displeasure, sadness, has different favorite places in the house, etc etc - the unique attributes of their own personailties. We know this to be true because as we spend more time with our pets and get to know them better, we begin to recognize what ‘normal’ behavior is for them. “Charlie always jumps all over when he sees me coming with his bowl, but Rufus always runs over and sits at the same spot and waits for me to set the bowl down. Charlie isn’t jumping today, that really isn’t like him, maybe there’s something wrong.”
Nobody here is talking about animals having the same cognitive abilities that people do, but you don’t have to have all that to have unique traits and personalities (animalities if that is getting to you) that make that animal different and special to you.