08 Jun KASHRUS QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

May one have a dog or a cat as a pet? Is there an issur to feed bossur b’chalav to a pet animal? What other issues can potentially be a problem with having a dog or a cat as a pet?

There are a few separate issues in this question. The first is a kashrus issue; one is not allowed to prepare basar b’chalav nor benefit from it. The prohibition of basar b’chalav, mixing meat and milk together, is a unique prohibition. It’s not just that you’re not allowed to eat basar b’chalav, you’re also not allowed to prepare or benefit from basar b’chalav. The reason for that is that when the Torah expresses the prohibition of basar b’chalav it says “lo tevashel g’di bchelev imo”; you’re not allowed to cook an animal in its mother’s milk. There are two unique points about this pasuk:

This passuk is found 3 times in the Torah. It doesn’t say you’re not allowed to eat basar b’chalav, rather it says you’re not allowed to cook basar v’chalav. The gemara teaches us that this comes to teach us two rules. One rule it teaches us is that the prohibition of basar b’chalav is not just limited to eating meat and milk cooked together, but it also includes benefiting from meat and milk cooked together or even preparing meat and milk together. Which means, even if you’re not going to eat the meat and milk, but you’re just going to prepare the meat and milk, it’s still prohibited. So if there’s a pet food that is made of meat and milk, one cannot benefit from it by feeding it to his animal, and one cannot prepare it for his animal. So someone who has a pet has to be very careful about the food that they’re serving their pets.

It really goes a step further. This is also relevant to Pesach where there could be chometz in the pet food. On Pesach we are not allowed to own or benefit from chometz in any way. If someone owns a pet, they have to be very careful on Pesach that aside from not having meat and milk, they have to make sure there’s no chometz in the food, as well.

The second issue is that a pet is considered muktza on Shabbos and one may not touch the animal on Shabbos for that reason. There are unique situations, for example, someone who is blind and has a seeing eye dog, that may be somewhat different. But handling animals on Shabbos is not permitted. You are allowed to feed your animals on Shabbos; you can pour the food in the fish tank or pour the food in front of the dog or cat, but you cannot handle your pet on Shabbos.

The Gemara says “assur ladam l’gadel kelev ra b’baiso.” A person is not supposed to raise a dangerous animal at home. If someone has a dangerous animal at home, that is prohibited. If it’s an animal that’s not dangerous, there’s nothing specifically halachically prohibited about owning a pet. We used to give a hashgacah to one particular pet food company, though I don’t think that company makes pet food anymore, however, there are other supervisions that give a hechsher to pet food. When you’re serving a pet, it’s not the same as when we’re eating. The pet can eat non-kosher meat, but it can’t eat a mixture of meat and milk.