List of kosher animals

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Kashrut or Kashruth, Kashrus (Hebrew: כַּשְרוּת, kašrûṯ, meaning "fitness" or "permissibility", in this sense, "kosherness") (Hebrew: כָּשֵר, kāšēr) is the name of the Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Hebrew term kashér, meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption by Jews according to traditional Jewish law). See Kashrut for a more general description of the practice. This is a list of animals that are kosher.

1 Land mammals
2 Water-dwelling animals
3 Birds
4 Note
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Land mammals

Bovines (family Bovidae) (cattle (cows), goats, sheep, and antelope)
Musk deer (family Moschidae)
Deer (family Cervidae)
Giraffes and okapis (family Giraffidae)
Pronghorns (family Antilocapridae)

[edit] Water-dwelling animals

Water-dwelling creatures with both fins and "scales" (קשקשת qasqeseth)^[1] are categorized as kosher. On the basis of these criteria, all shellfish and sea-dwelling mammals are immediately prohibited. Indeed, the apparently broad category of kosher water-dwelling animals is readily reducible to a blanket exclusion of all non-fish. The definition of qasqeseth, the word translated as "scales" is clarified by Nahmanides^[2], as referring specifically to scales which can be removed by hand or with a knife, without tearing the skin, quickly excluding fishes whose scales are embedded deeper than the surface of the skin. This definition is accepted by all observant Jews.^[3] A further restriction, excluding eels an a few other classes of fish, is the requirement that a fish's scales must be readily-visible^[4]. Broadly, this means that all fishes which do not have cycloid or ctenoid scales cannot be kosher (although it does not mean that all fishes which do have one of these types of scales are automatically kosher)^[5].

Another fish that is not kosher is the catfish because when it reaches adulthood it loses its scales, making it unkosher.

The kashrut of swordfish and sturgeon are the source of minor controversy, as they reportedly have scales as young fish, but lose them later in life. Most Orthodox authorities have ruled that these fish are not kosher^[5], but many Conservative rabbis rule that they are kosher.^[6] The issue of the kashruth of sturgeon is especially important because sturgeon caviar cannot be kosher if the sturgeon itself is not.

[edit] Birds

[edit] Note

All land animals must still be slaughtered and prepared by a shochet (שוחט) in order to be considered kosher. Fish are considered to be kosherly slaughtered as soon as they are removed from the water and need no kosher killing.