I got all the Animals and found out what they all do here is a list.   To see what the bonus all you have to do is equiped the starter sword and then pick the orb you want.  Then save and exit to the main menu.  Then go to Player Statistics it shows the bonus there.

Beholder -  Ad&d themed monster
+2 Magic

BiPolar -  Gray Bear
Mauls Enemies, and Friends who are near death  (Funny as hell to watch a friend get mauled)

Bitey Bat - Black Bat
Chomps enemy's heads

Burly Bear - Brown Bear
+2 Strength

Cardinal - Red bird
 Helps you find secret items

Chicken -  white fat chicken
+1 Strength
+1 Defense
+1 Agility

Frogglet - Small version of the armory Frog
Can pick up items with his tongue

Giraffey -  Giraff head
Helps you level up faster

Hawkster -  Dark brown Hawk
say it Attacks fallen enemies, but for me it just retrieves food for you

Install Ball -  Bouncing green and black ball
Shoots enemies with his photons  ( seems to do about 6-9 damage)

Meowburt - Gray cat
+3 Agility

Monkeyface - Brown and yellow Monkey
Increases your luck finding items (not secret items, just items from dead guys)

Mr Buddy - Little doberman
Helps you dig faster

Owlet -  Brown and white owl
Retrieves hidden fruit from trees

Pazzo - Tan and white husky
Helps you find buried treasures ( very helpfull to find weapons and some of the other pets)

Piggy - Its a pig, small and pink
Makes food give you more health

Rammy -  White Ram
Knocks down enemies

Scratchpaw - Tiger striped cat
+1 Strength
+2 Agility

Seahorse - Green Seahorse
Allows you to move quickly through water

Sherbert -  Orange cat
Helps you jump higher

Snailburt - Brown Snail
+5 Defense
-5 Agility

Snoot - Gray Elephant
+2 Strength

Spiny -  Spiny lizzard
+2 Defense

Troll - Black fuzzball 
Slowly regenerates your health ( 9 points every 10 seconds)

Yeti -  White with Blue eyes ( looks like a crazy squirrel)
Protects you from being frozen

Zebra -  Its a Zebra
Helps you find food in grass

neat 

why dont you post where to get them aswell.

some helpful stuff, Hawkster actually does attack downed enemies, but if the enemy is dead, and there are no other dudes around, he will bring you a random food item. Also, it seems like the install orb and the troll's numbers are affected by your lvl, so the higher your lvl, the moreover troll will heal ( when I got him with my lvl 6 green knight, he healed 1 every 10 seconds).

i posted a complete list of animal orbs including location, effect, and name on the game page but it's still pending so hopefully it will be up here soon

Here is a video that shows where to get every animal orb. Pretty nicely done video if you ask me.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IiT2jInrRpM

cheaters.