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

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

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

[cellio]

I get the benefit of companionship, else I wouldn't have them in the first place. Even if that companionship became inconvenient, though (say, one of them was sick all the time and grumpy), by adopting them I accepted a lifetime obligation to see to their care.

I wouldn't acquire a pet who required chametz food during Pesach, because that would be making a choice to bring chametz into the house unnecessarily. But since they're already there, I owe them continued sustenance, with or without lap cuddles and other warm fuzzies.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

So I think you wouldn't have this problem with a dog, since the dog could eat your (kosher) table scraps during Passover?

How do Jewish farmers of livestock deal with this requirement?

[cellio]

In theory I could also just feed the cats canned tuna for a week, too. But my vet says disrupting their regular diet would be bad, especially for Erik. Presumably you have the same considerations with dogs -- if it's not unhealthy to do so you just feed them people food, but if it is you don't.

I don't actually know how Jews who own livestock deal with the problem. I'm guessing they sell the livestock along with their fields, and maybe when you're dealing on that scale it's even practical to have someone else come in to tend them.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

it's entirely possible, by the way, that the cat's food, particularly Erik's special diet, is just fine for Pesach. There are MANY diets for pets out there that contain only kitniyos and no chometz. You can check the ingredients.