Pesach and pets

[cellio]

During Pesach we are not permitted to eat, own, or benefit from chametz (leaven, but it's more complicated than that now). Traditional interpretations of halacha raise this as a problem for pet owners, because keeping your pets alive benefits you. So you have to find compliant forms of pet food, or send the pets elsewhere for a week, or perhaps sell the pets along with your chametz (I'm not sure if that works -- that would make you the custodian of someone else's pets for the week).

I think this interpretation of "benefit from" makes sense in the case of livestock (that you're ultimately going to profit from in some way), but I don't see it for pets. Pets aren't profit centers; they're family members -- you can argue about pecking order within the family, but that's another matter.

Still, I am mindful of the traditional problem. I can't change the food (one is on a special diet), and I'm not going to send them away or sell them, but I can still do something, without even invoking compassion or arguing about whether pikuach nefesh (serious health issues) applies to non-humans.

So, I hereby transfer ownership of the cat food in the house to the cats.

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Are your cats Jewish? :-)

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Hm. If you transferred ownership of the house to the cats, then it would be their problem to clean for Pesach, wouldn't it?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

You don't get any benefit from your pets being alive?

=0)

[cecerose.livejournal.com]

Great solution!

They're not Jewish. They're cats. Cats have no religion, other than "feed, adore and pay attention to ME..." ;o)

[woodwindy.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

Don't let the nitpickers faze you -- I think you've hit on the perfect solution. ;)

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Heh, nice solution.
Are non-humans ever bound by the halacha at all?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

That's what I do. After all, we call it "Boopsie's food" anyway. Therefore, we don't need to transfer ownership to her in any case: it's hers to start with.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

But since the cats don't control the food, just own it, that makes you their guardian?

[rectangularcat]

Chag Sameach!

Haha I love this cat entry! My cats would argue that they too have ownership of the cat food - on a daily allocation basis. They'd like full control... but alas no.

[sk4p.livejournal.com]

SANEST. RELIGIOUS. SOLUTION. EVAR. I congratulate you.

[dr4b]

I never even thought about it, hmm. When I was a kid we kept kosher and we did have pet dogs, but I don't think my parents really paid too much attention to having the dogs keep kosher!

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

Because I have no comprehension of any religion at all, just the knowledge that a religion could pose such a set of such ridiculous problems to someone whom I admire for being serious about her religion makes me feel so happy that I picked my right course.

[jducoeur]

Ha! You *are* starting to think like a rabbi -- that's a positively brilliant workaround...

[kyleri]

Dude. That so totally rocks as a solution. :)