Kangaroo Meat?

[Bravus]

There are calls in Australia at the moment to switch some of our meat production from sheep to kangaroos. Kangaroo meat is lean and healthy, but the most important advantage is that they are well adapted to the land and it to them - their soft feet do less damage than sheeps' hooves and they are less prone to over-grazing and other ecological damage.

Is kangaroo clean meat? They don't 'divide the hoof' - they don't have any. But in terms of what they eat and their lifestyle they don't really fit in with the rodents, which have the most similar feet. Basically, they don't really fit into the Old Testament classification system at all, because it didn't need to contain them. What do you think?

[Amelia]

Well camels don't have hooves either and they are clean because they chew cud. Do roos chew cud?

[Gail]

Well camels don't have hooves either and they are clean because they chew cud. Do roos chew cud?

I thought that camels had cloven hooves... aren't you familiar with "camel toes"?

:)

[Amelia]

Originally Posted By: Amelia

Well camels don't have hooves either and they are clean because they chew cud. Do roos chew cud?

I thought that camels had cloven hooves... aren't you familiar with "camel toes"?

Oh you are baaaaaaaad

[Bravus]

Apparently they do

[Amelia]

You have no idea what I have to sift through to get this pic

[Amelia]

Apparently they do

Hummm I guess they are not clean. Look here

http://www.ucgstp.org/lit/booklets/clean/animals.html#1

[Gail]

Quote:

You have no idea what I have to sift through to get this pic

Oh, I believe it!

[Nan]

If I stick to being a vegematarian I will not have to worry if the roos are clean or not!

[lazarus]

Remember Skippy. There's no way I could eat Skippy and fries

[aldona]

I dont't think I could ever eat Skippy, either.

But in many stores around here, you can already buy kangaroo meat - in many of the usual cuts as well as sausages, mince and burger patties.

aldona

[Bravus]

Have you seen how cute baby calves and lambs are? Guess they didn't save Sonny Hammond from peril, though...

And sure, the number one health and environmental option is vegetarianism, and many of you have chosen it, and that's great. But given we can't convince everyone to choose it yet, the choice between sheep and roos in Australia is an interesting one.

I guess my point really was more theoretical, though. That list of clean and unclean animals Amelia posted illustrated it nicely, and the surrounding text made the point that there seem to be good health grounds for most of the prohibitions. Interesting why horses (and zebras and so on) are unclean while other herbivorous mammals are generally clean... Kangaroos are herbivorous and chew the cud. They don't fit into the existing category system because there were none in the Sinai desert or anywhere in the Middle East. I'm not sure why the assumption, for something not identified, is automatically out, not automatically in. And I'm not sure how we would use the principles embedded in the dietary laws to determine whether the kangaroo is clean or not.

So I'm not asking you to eat Skippy, I'm asking you to think about an interesting logical and theological issue.

[Dr. Shane]

In the US there has been a movement for sometime to raise and market ostrich meat, which is unclean. Many Adventists insist that ducts are unclean - I have even heard it in evangelistic crusades and my wife believes it - but according to the Bible they are not unclean and Amelia's list has them with the clean birds.

Didn't see our favorite fish, tilapia, which is a clean fish.

[Tom Wetmore]

That reminds me, I need to have my air ducts cleaned out because they are dirty... :smilewink:

The Jewish kosher authorities have determined that domestic duck and goose are clean, but that wild duck and goose are unclean, which perhaps explains some Adventist confusion.

Most all Jewish kosher lists exclude the kangaroo, because of the absence of a split hoof. There does seem to be some difference over whether it also misses the boat on the cud chewing part. I found this interesting comment floating out their on the internet:

Quote:

Question:

Why do Jews give the poor old pig such a hard time? Is the pig more unkosher than other animals?

Answer:

The pig has copped it pretty badly in the collective Jewish psyche over the years. It has always been the personification of unkosherness. It is not uncommon to find Jews who say "I may not keep kosher, but at least I don't eat pig!" Although a pig is no more unkosher than a cheeseburger or a lobster, the pig has something to it that is anathema to what Judaism stands for: it is a fraud.

There are two signs that identify a kosher species of animal. 1) It has split hooves, and 2) it chews its cud (i.e. it regurgitates its food and chews it over a second time.) The first sign is easy to spot - just look at the hooves. But the second is not so apparent. You have to study the animal's digestive system to know if it chews its cud. A cow is an example of an animal that fulfils both requirements, and is thus kosher. A kangaroo is not kosher because it fulfils neither. There is only one animal in existence that seems kosher because it has split hooves, but is really not kosher because it doesn't chew its cud - the pig.

And that's why we denigrate the pig. Every other non-kosher animal is up front about it. The kangaroo says "I don't have split hooves, so I'm just not kosher." But the pig presents a kosher facade. "Look, I have split hooves, just like a kosher animal should!" But what lies hidden behind that kosher veneer is a non-kosher inside: it doesn't chew its cud. For Judaism, nothing could be worse than making a holy facade when your inside is rotten.

I thought the holy facade idea an interesting perspective.

Tom

[Nan]

My father used to insist that eels are clean....as they apparently have fins and microscopic scales. (I am quoting him, I have no idea of the scientific accuracy of his claims) I am not sure that he ever ate eel, I think he was pursuing the same kind of theological debate Bravus has introduced.

Do we stick to the law in spirit or push the boundaries as far as we can?

[Amelia]

After reading several sites about the behaviour of roos, they all say the same thing, roos chew cud.

[Amelia]

True eels (Anguilliformes) are an order of fish. Eels have fins. Eels have cycloid scales and are most common on more primitive fish with soft fin rays, such as salmon and carp. With this information I would say that Anguilliformes eels are clean.