Some food for thought

Letters

Editor: I was titillated by an article in your June 28 edition entitled "Kosher Pet Food for Sale" (Bulletin, Short Takes). Your readers may be interested in learning that this was not the first time such products were available. In 1985, I recall feeding my dog knish-flavored Kibbles. I had an aunt who fed her cat Farschimelte Friskees and an uncle who fed his bird Billik Birdseed.

For a while, such foods were to be found in every frum home. However, one day someone asked the question, "How can I tell if my pet is Jewish?" Most people assume that the test for Jewish males could be applied to pets. This seemed to indicate that few, if any, animals were Jewish. The feminist movement, however, pointed out that there was no way of telling if a female pet was Jewish. Several tests were examined. Did a pet sound Jewish, that is to say, did it have a Jewish name, such as "Dobermann"? This test was not infallible as the names of some species have changed over the years. Many people are not aware, for example, that a Labrador was once called a Lapidus. Some dogs, such as bloodhounds, are reputed to look Jewish. Others, such as bulldogs, not. When they caught wind of it, the congregation of Southern Baptist churches started complaining that feeding dogs kosher food when they weren't Jewish was a form of proselytizing. Tempers flared. For a while, there were reports of arsons of dog houses. Burnings of crossed dog bones were found in front lawns as far north as Lethbridge, Alta.

Matters came to a head when a Russian immigrant family tried to bring their Borzoi into Israel under the Law of Return. The chief rabbi of Israel was asked for a definitive opinion. After weeks of deliberation, he held that the cloven-hoof rule applied. In other words, you could only keep a pet you could eat. As there were few people who kept chickens, sheep, goats or cows as pets, the demand for kosher pet food fell off and eventually the products were no longer marketed. It remains to be seen whether this new endeavor will suffer the same fate.

Gerald J. Lecovin
Vancouver

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