# Are peccaries kosher to eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493 "2005-10-29T19:49:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/21 "2005-10-29T22:00:29Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > Goody; now I can ask the question that’s been bothering me (but not so much that I bothered to actually find the answer): > Someone told me that technically, Giraffes are kosher (assuming, of course, that they are slaughtered properly). Yea or nay? They should be, since they are cud-chewing ruminants, and have [divided hooves](http://www.dillonzone.com/archives/zoo_ghoof-thumb.jpg). That also goes for antelope and deer. Horses are not kosher because they have an undivided hoof and do not chew the cud. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/22 "2005-10-29T22:14:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Moses was not a taxonomist. Sure he was. He just wasn’t a very good one! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/23 "2005-10-29T22:16:08Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > In more detail: > Quote: > And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Say to the people of Israel, These are the living things which you may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud among the animals, you may eat. Nevertheless among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you. No wonder my Jewish friends won’t eat my delicious barbequed rock-badger! mmmm…rock-badger… ::drools:: ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/24 "2005-10-29T22:33:09Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > No wonder my Jewish friends won’t eat my delicious barbequed rock-badger! > > mmmm…rock-badger… ::drools:: Actually, the “rock-badger” of the bible is thought to be the [Rock Hyrax](http://www.snunit.k12.il/sachlav/zoo/english/upload/month/rockhyrax1.jpg) _Procavia capensis_ (or _P. syriaca_), also sometimes called “coney.” Hyraxes are thought to be more closely related to elephants and manatees than anything else. > [@John Mace](#): > > Sure he was. He just wasn’t a very good one! Let’s just say Moses wasn’t a cladist. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/25 "2005-10-29T23:10:39Z")
I remember a Harry Turtledove story “The R Strain”, about what happens when researchers genetically engineer a pig to chew the cud (in order to make pigs a more efficient eater and therefore cheaper to raise). They ask a rabbi whether the modification would make a pig kosher. It’s an interesting story, though I don’t remember the details or the ending. (I read it over a decade ago, after all) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/26 "2005-10-29T23:22:18Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Actually, the “rock-badger” of the bible is thought to be the [Rock Hyrax](http://www.snunit.k12.il/sachlav/zoo/english/upload/month/rockhyrax1.jpg) _Procavia capensis_ (or _P. syriaca_), also sometimes called “coney.” Hyraxes are thought to be more closely related to elephants and manatees than anything else. Interesting , so [hyraxes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyrax) are responsible for why Spain is called “Spain”. Who knew? > [@](#): > > Characteristics > Hyraxes are short-legged, well-furred, rotund creatures with a mere stump for a tail. They are about the size of a domestic cat; most measure between 30 and about 70 cm long and weigh between 2 and 5 kg. From a distance and with a little imagination, a hyrax could be mistaken for a very well-fed rabbit—indeed, early Phoenician navigators mistook the rabbits of the Iberian Peninsula for hyraxes (Hebrew Shapan); hence they named it I-Shapan-im, meaning “land of the hyraxes”, which became to the Latin word “Hispania”, the root of Spains modern Spanish name España and the English name Spain. Also, most of the rabbits mentioned in English Bible translations were actually hyraxes, as early translators could not come up with a specific word for these animals, which were unknown in Europe at that time. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/27 "2005-10-29T23:43:40Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Like the milk/cheese thing: this rule was meant to avoid the possibility of stewing a kid (read: juvie goat) in its own mother’s milk. In order to exclude any such possibility, the rabbis that be outlawed putting ANY meat in ANY milk. It reminds me of a joke where YHWH is giving his rules to Moses, who most respectfully ask for what appears to be clarifications, actually adding each time all sort of extrapolations and rules all by himself, while YHWH, more and more irritated, keeps on stating :“No, I only meant “thou shall not stew the _goat_ in its _mother_’s _milk_”” until he eventually gives up (when Moses begins to wonder about the disposal of supposedly unclean kitchenware or somesuch) saying in a tired voice “Ok, Moses, do as you see fit” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/28 "2005-10-29T23:43:54Z")
I hope this isn’t too much of a hijack, but I was reading the book Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman wrote about their motorcycle trip around the world, and at one point, in Mongolia, they were served soup with animal testicles-bulls, pigs, sheep, cows, etc. That got me wondering-would testicles, provided them came from a kosher animal, still be allowed? Even if the animal is still alive after castration? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/29 "2005-10-30T00:19:59Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I hope this isn’t too much of a hijack, but I was reading the book Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman wrote about their motorcycle trip around the world, and at one point, in Mongolia, they were served soup with animal testicles-bulls, pigs, sheep, cows, etc. > > That got me wondering-would testicles, provided them came from a kosher animal, still be allowed? Even if the animal is still alive after castration? According to [this site](http://www.mechon-mamre.org/jewfaq/kashrut.htm), the only parts of kosher animals that are not kosher are the sciatic nerve and one kind of fat. Presumably everything else is kosher. Since it is now after sundown, perhaps we may get some more expert answers soon. ;j ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/30 "2005-10-30T00:25:14Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > “thou shall not stew the _goat_ in its _mother_’s _milk_”" This may be a bit of a hijack, but this is the third time I’ve seen this particular admonishment this week, and I’m just wondering: Why not? ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/31 "2005-10-30T00:32:38Z")
Regarding the babirusa question, one of my friends told me that a group of Jewish soldiers in SE Asia captured a babirusa and wanted to eat it but decided to ask a rabbi if it would be kosher. The rabbi said no, presumably because it was a type of pig. (I doubt, unless he studied zoology extensively, the rabbi would have known whether or not these animals can chew their cuds.) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/32 "2005-10-30T00:45:38Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > This may be a bit of a hijack, but this is the third time I’ve seen this particular admonishment this week, and I’m just wondering: Why not? From [here](http://heartofisrael.org/teachings/rabbi/Food.htm) > [@](#): > > 'The separation of milk and meat is the most prominent distinguishing mark of the Jewish home. Most of the laws connected with the consumption of food are the concern of the shohet, the butcher, and the grocer, all of whom are involved before the food reaches the home. With the separation of milk and meat, the family becomes directly involved and the kitchen receives its Jewish character. > > 'Neither the Bible nor the Talmud gives any rationale for these laws. Maimonides ascribes their origin to Jewish disgust at the fertility rites practiced by the pagan cults of Canaan(Guide 3:48). One of these rites was the cooking of a kid in its mother’s milk. Dr. Nelson Glueck reports that this practice is still found among the Bedouins of today, not as a pagan rite but as an act of hospitality to a distinguished guest (see also Finkelstein, Pharisees 1:58-60, 2:831-32, n.; Encyclopedia Miqra’it, 1:89; Baron, Social and Religious History, 1:328, n. 22). > > 'To us this regulation reflects reverence for life and the teaching of compassion. To seethe a kid in its mother’s milk is callous. Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel expresses it thus: The goat–in our case, more commonly the cow–generously and steadfastly provides man with the single most perfect food that he possesses, milk. It is the only food which, by reason of its proper composition of fat, carbohydrates, and protein, can by itself sustain the human body. How ungrateful and callous we would be to take the child of an animal to whom we are thus indebted and cook it in the very milk which nourishes us and is given us so freely by its mother (see Ibn Ezra on Exod. 23:19; Dresner and Siegel, Jewish Dietary Laws, p. 70). ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/33 "2005-10-30T00:47:08Z")
> [@](#): > > To be fair, it’s my understanding that such criteria were laid out specifically in order to exclude swine. Your understanding is wrong. The two criteria are laid out (cloven hoofs and chew the cud) and examples are given of animals who fits one criteria but not the other and are therefore not permitted. (There’s no need to give examples of an animal who fits neither criteria.) The actual OP should also be directed at Islam. For Islam, the criteria is simple that pigs are unclean, there’s no categorization or classification. See [Straight Dope Staff Report: Do Jewish and Islamic dietary laws have anything in common?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mjewishislamdiet.html) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/34 "2005-10-30T01:00:48Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > The actual OP should also be directed at Islam. For Islam, the criteria is simple that pigs are unclean, there’s no categorization or classification. See [Straight Dope Staff Report: Do Jewish and Islamic dietary laws have anything in common?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mjewishislamdiet.html) Since peccaries technically are not pigs, then in theory they could be _halal_. But I would guess that in prectice, because of the close resemblance, peccaries would also be considered unclean. I suspect that Mohammed wasn’t a cladist either. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/35 "2005-10-30T01:36:42Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > This may be a bit of a hijack, but this is the third time I’ve seen this particular admonishment this week, and I’m just wondering: Why not? Not to be a smartalec, but in this case the proper and accurate answer would be, “Because God said so.” We are after all talking about the kosher food classifications germane to Orthodox Judaism, based in Talmudic exposition of the Torah. And according to Orthodox Jews, the Torah is supposed to have been given to Moses by God Himself. Ergo, while there may be hygienic, folkloric, or other underpinnings for the custom-made-into-law, _within the context of the discussion_, it needs to be taken as a divine commandment. ;j ← First time I’ve ever had the opportunity to use him appropriately! ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/36 "2005-10-30T02:07:43Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > The two criteria are laid out (cloven hoofs and chew the cud) and examples are given of animals who fits one criteria but not the other and are therefore not permitted. I wonder if Satan chews his cud, if he does, I guess that would make him kosher. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/37 "2005-10-30T03:07:37Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > Your understanding is wrong. The two criteria are laid out (cloven hoofs and chew the cud) and examples are given of animals who fits one criteria but not the other and are therefore not permitted. (There’s no need to give examples of an animal who fits neither criteria.) . . . Of course; I didn’t mean to suggest that it was only a swine that the letter of the law was meant to exclude. I just meant that “clovenness” and “ruminant” are not of themselves “good”; that the arbitrary-sounding criteria were arrived at to include the specific animals that were allowed (cows, goats) and exclude the specific animals that were not (horses, pigs). And thus, as we’ve seen, animals outside of the contemporary knowledge of the scholars who created those criteria might be excluded “on a technicality.” I mean, it seems likely to me that they wanted to say that cows were OK, goats were OK, and (I assume) sheep were OK to eat, but they wanted it to sound mysterious and arbitrary. Rather than specifically naming the approved animals, they invented more technical-sounding rules. No? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/38 "2005-10-30T07:00:12Z")
lissener: > [@](#): > > Rather than specifically naming the approved animals, they invented more technical-sounding rules. No? Except that this flies in the face of the dietary laws of birds and locusts, where the Torah does list specific species (in the case of birds, the forbidden ones, in the case of locusts, the permitted ones) rather than a technical-sounding rule. There is a practical difference: Bottom line is that the technical-sounding rule allows Jews to determine the permissibility of eating unfamiliar species (bison, anyone?). The listing of species as in the case of the birds does not allow for such determination. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/39 "2005-10-30T07:31:12Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I hope this isn’t too much of a hijack, but I was reading the book Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman wrote about their motorcycle trip around the world, and at one point, in Mongolia, they were served soup with animal testicles-bulls, pigs, sheep, cows, etc. > > That got me wondering-would testicles, provided them came from a kosher animal, still be allowed? Even if the animal is still alive after castration? No part cut from a living animal is kosher. This goes way back to Noah being told (among a few other things) not to eat a limb torn from a living animal. If the testicles are from a bull slaughtered in the proper manner, they are kosher. The Whole Jewish Catalog has a series of helpful photos showing extra steps that must be taken when cooking a heart. It’s things like this that give Jewish Cuisine such subtleties. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493/40 "2005-10-31T00:45:41Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I remember a Harry Turtledove story “The R Strain”, about what happens when researchers genetically engineer a pig to chew the cud (in order to make pigs a more efficient eater and therefore cheaper to raise). They ask a rabbi whether the modification would make a pig kosher. It’s an interesting story, though I don’t remember the details or the ending. (I read it over a decade ago, after all) The piece of information that allows the Rabbi to decide was the fact that the new pigs couldn’t interbreed with old pigs. Therefore they were different species, and no longer pigs. He ate some of the new pork at the end. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-peccaries-kosher-to-eat/328493.md?page=3)