11 Feb KASRUTH QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

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.