celebrity animal love affairs go a little beyond the realms of ordinary fanatics, but

perhaps we just hear more about them than ordinary folks’ fantastic pet pampering, and we are talking about more than just feeding your dog bacon, we are talking about diamonds and surgery.

Rihanna & her pooch Oliver

Tales of dogs eating from their own plates of food on restaurant tables (Britney

Spears’ Chihuahua, Bit Bit), being guests of honour at weddings (Elton’s Cocker

spaniel, Arthur), getting married themselves (Sigourney Weaver’s Greyhound,

Petals), bathing with their owners (Mariah Carey’s Jack Russell, Jack) and having

their own treadmill to take them for walks when their owner is too tired (Will Smith’s

four Rottweillers), are probably not unheard of in everyday life. It’s more likely just

the scale and cost is more extravagant.

Verne Troyer and his Bulldog Banana

Tiny dogs, in particular Chihuahuas, seem to be the pet of choice and are often

lugged around as an accessory. Other favourite lovable, luggable breeds include

Yorkie, Pomeranian and Maltipoo.

Megan Fox and her Vietnamese Pig ‘Piggy Smolls’

But it’s not just dogs on the star pet circuit; Rupert Grint supposedly has a pet micro

pig (the size of a tea cup), Nicole Kidman has alpacas and wants some pet snakes,

which used to be Nicolas Cage’s and is Slash’s choice – he takes his snake driving in

the front seat of the car and Mike Tyson used to have tigers.

Adrien Brodie and his dog ‘Lolly’

Paris Hilton is said to have housed Tinkerbell and her many Chihuahua friends in

a dog house worth around $320,000. Perhaps Tinkerbell earned the money herself

when she co-authored her own diaries in 2004? I’m sure she and Paris made a very

creative literary team.

Paris and Tinkerbell share a love of designers labels.

Jennifer Aniston has two best friends who don’t let her down or leave her for other

women, Corgi-terrier cross Norman and white German shepherd Dolly. Apparently

Norman often accompanies her on set.

Jennifer – Norman & Dolly

Lola, the English Bulldog is just one of many dogs beloved of Ozzy Osborne and his

family. Sharon and Ozzy love to rescue dogs from shelters and take them into their

enormous homes. They may or may not be better behaved than the humans there.

What are you looking at? – Ozzy and Lola

Hunky Hugh Jackman and his family love their pooch JJ. The next addition to their

NYC household was a French Bulldog named Peaches and more recently celebrity

dog spotters noticed a new pup called Mochi in Hugh’s arms. Wolverine loves his

furry animals it seems.

Hugh taking JJ for a walk.

Pop starlet Katy Perry‘s cat is called Kitty Purry. She must love cats as her new

perfume range is called Purr.

Kitty and Katy

Gerard Butler got into hot water recently when he defended his pug Lolita against a couple and their Grey hound. The crazy couple say that Butler grabbed their dog’s head and slammed it against a fence. The couples grey hound had apparently bit his tiny dog and then went after her again.

Gerard Butler & his dog Lolita

Who’d have thought English comedian Jonny Vegas was a dachshund man? Frank

is a red smooth.

Frankie and Jonny

Jane Fonda says she got her Couton de Toulear pooch, Tulea, because Barbra

Streisand has one. Well why not? Both love that the breed is small enough to take

on the road with them.

Barbarella and Tulea

A couple of famous pets that are no longer with us:

Mickey Rourke loves Chihuahua’s and the love of his life Loki died recently. He loved the dog so much that he would take her on the red carpet with him.

Mickey & Loki

Meatball was an English Bulldog belonging to Adam Sandler and they went

everywhere together. Meatball passed away in 2004 and Adam’s next Bulldog is

called Matzoball. Funny guy.

Not a wedding singer, but his best man. Adam & Meatball

Although he passed away in 2006, Max, George Clooney’s Vietnamese black

bristled potbellied pig, was an unusual, yet memorable pet who supposedly even

shared George’s bed. To the envy of many I’m sure.

George with Max in 1990

And finally, another blast from the past, is Michael Jackson’s chimpanzee, Bubbles.

Let’s just remember the good days and leave it at that, shall we.

Bubbles is still alive and well in a Florida sanctuary.

Midge can usually be found writing about food and in particular meat, lamb and sausage recipes on her blog.

Different answers have been suggested throughout human history, by animal lovers, scientists, philosophers, and others who interact with animals, but the core question has proven hard to answer since we can neither obtain spoken answers, nor assume anthropomorphism. As a result, on the one hand society recognizes animals can feel pain, by criminalizing animal cruelty. Often expressions of apparent pleasure are ambiguous as to whether this is emotion, or simply innate response, perhaps to approval or other hard-wired cues. The ambiguity is a source of much controversy in that there is no certainty which views, if any, are “right”. That said, extreme behaviorists would say that human “feeling” is also merely a hard-wired response to external stimuli.

In recent years, research has become available which expands prior understandings of animal language, cognition and tool use, and even sexuality. Emotions arise in the mammalian brain, or the limbic system, which human beings share in common with other mammals as well as many other species. This presents both a scientific dilemma — how can we tell? — and a potential ethical one — if true, what does it mean?