Frum Jews and animals: why can't they get along together?

We own a dog, and most kids and adults relax around her once she sniffs them and tries to get them to pet her. Then again, not every dog should be pet or stroked, and I would never pet a dog without asking permission first.

I don’t want to get off-topic here, but why are you writing Hashem as hash-m? You skip a letter for no reason, but you don’t capitalize the “H”? Odd.

On a lighter note, there’s an old joke about Yankel who totally abandoned Yiddishkeit. He moved to a completely goyish neighborhood, had only goyish friends, had no connections to Judaism at all.

After living like that for many, many years, one day at a nearby mall Yankel (now known as Jack) bumps into his old friend Moshe from the old neighborhood.

Moshe is shocked by his friend’s life style.

“You mean to tell me you have nothing Jewish left in your life at all?!?” asks Moshe.

“To be totally honest” replies Yankel, “There are only two things left to my Jewish identity that I can’t seem to shake off”.

“Nu?” asks Moshe.

Yankel responds “Well, truth be told, I still love kneidlach, and… I’m still afraid of dogs!”

I have 3 cats, adopted straight from the streets of Yerushalayim where we found them as sick small cats (one of them was almost dead). I have heard and witnessed examples of cruelty against animals one does not want to imagine.

One of our cats, for example, was caught by kids from a local yeshiva who put him in an oven and were just turning it on when an adult spotted it and freed the cat. That was a week before we took him into our house. These were very ‘neat’ 14/15-year old yeshiva bochurim from a very mainstream respected Ashkenazi yeshiva. They were having a lot of fun about it when they were caught.

And yes it is indeed quite funny – some of the older daughters of our neighbors would be completely terrified on seeing a friendly small smiling cat.

When we left E”Y we took the cats with us, obviously. Here in Gateshead there are more frum people who have pets (some cats, even dogs and also a snake somewhere).

TCG -“was caught by kids from a local yeshiva who put him in an oven and were just turning it on when an adult spotted it and freed the cat.”

Ober, they will make the oven Traif. So it can’t be true -your Meissa. (;0

As me being a girl/woman I can actually attempt to explain to men why women have such strange reactions to dogs and what exactly goes on in a mind of a woman/girl when she Chas vashalom sees a dog. It goes something like this:

“AHHHHHHH! A DOG”

‘Oh no another dog, I forgot the posuk again….oh hashem please don’t let it jump on me in my shabbos clothes, I just got them this week’

‘Oh no here he comes’

(Girl runs as fast as she can)

(In case you men didn’t know, there is a posuk to say when a girl Chas vasholom sees a dog)

funny- in sem (we were a small sem) we were in a villa for the year. the ppl who owned the sem had a dog, and there was a dog that lived down the block and it would ALWAYS come play with “our” dog. in the beginning of the yr only a couple of girls were ok with the dogs. the rest of us went crazy! and even the teachers, if the dog(s) were waiting by the gate of the villa, they would not come in till the dogs left on their own (or if we noticed a teacher was late, we’d check to see if she/he had been down the block waiting for the dog to move away from the gate, then one girl would have to go up and bring the dog elsewhere) 😀 was quite the funny situation!

Shopping613- LOL!!!!!!!!

(my wife approves of your explanation. +1)

Shticky guy lol women and dogs just don’t mix, its like purple and orange! (If you’re a girl you’ll understand if you’re a man that’s a little harder to explain)

Toi

Kicking a cat?

How about stomping your feet (yelling “scat”) or jumping hard in front of them.

We only have a pet fish, but we love animals and our kids have learned the same.

They ask to pet neighborhood dogs. They play with our neighbors cats.

We once found an ailing baby bird (fell out of it’s nest). We brought it home and cared for it until we were able to bring it to an animal medical center.

Kids learn what we model. We don’t have a dog, but our kids love dogs because that’s what we model.

I grew up with cats, birds, and fish.

One thing I’ve noticed is that modern families will typically embrace getting a pet much more quickly than a yeshivish family will (and, so, their comfort levels will reflect that familiarity).

Is there a Halacha about having a pet (ie: on Shabbos, etc)?

We have two cats, brothers from the same litter. They are sweet, cute, and lend a lot of humor when they do some unusual antic. And we’re black-hat, Charedi, “Ultra-Orthodox” and makpid on the mitzvos and Torah learning. That includes being makpid in appreciating the other creatures that Hashem created for our enjoyment.

The problem seems fairly clear to me, no dogs = no comptetion as to who is having the leftover chulent for supper.

My friend found 6 kittens a few weeks ago and now they are all like house cats! Personally I love dogs, just not in my shabbos clothes 🙂

I think it depends on what you are used to. If you grew up with a pet, you aren’t afraid. But many frum people especially the NYC folk have never had a pet so of course they are terrified. We have two orange cats. My daughter’s friends thought they were lions. 🙂

There was a story a number of years ago about a little girl who saw a dog coming down the block and ran across the street. Unfortunately, there was a car coming down the block and the girl never made it to the other side.

The dog is not as dangerous as the car. Be careful. “

This story resonates with me, as my own daughter who is terrified of dogs (with reason), did virtually the same thing. She was 9 or 10 and walking the two blocks to shul with my then 5 year old son. A dog came down the street (not a frequent occurrence) and she let go of my son and ran right into traffic (fortunately there WAS no traffic at that moment, or I would be writing a very different story). That is how scared she was.

Thwe reason for the fear is that we were under siege one summer by a pack of feral dogs, including dobermans, rottweilers, and German Shepherds. We never knew where they came from, but they took refuge in my yard, and we could not get the police or Animal Control to come for them. In fact we were told to try to trap them. WERE THEY KIDDING???????????? They would run off and return, at random

Anyway, these dogs were very bold and snarly, and one even came up on my porch and jumped at her. I shooed him away with a broom and a pitcher of water. My daughter was so traumatized, she wouldn’t go out of the house without one of us with her, for months afterward. We heard later that two people in our neighborhood were bitten by one or more of them, one of them VERY seriously, needed a lot of surgery. Not all dogs are friendly, even to an animal lover, which I happen to be.

in my family, we’re all animal lovers except one who was bitten by a dog at age 2. We’ve had gerbils, a turtle, fish, and birds. i’ve always wanted a bunny :). my mother wants a cat, my father a dog, but neither of those is happening.the female terror is beyond my comprehension, but i know quite a few girls who like animals, and even more women 40+. though i have only seen 1 person really freeze in fear when a dog jumped on her skirt. others just scream and run.i admit big dogs i’ll avoid unless i know the owner, only because i’ve seen too many jump up on ppl and i dont want that experience, esp since i’d likely get knocked down :). Seems to me its becomng more and more common to fear pets though, because while little kids arent naturally afraid, when you see how the mothers grab their kids and run when they see a dog, its expectable for the kids to learn to run too. Why more now? Two/three generations ago, many lived on farms, or at least bought their chicken and fish live. so there was no fear to teach their kids. but nowadays…

CRious: It is not at all Pashut that an animal that you own is Muktzeh. Many, many Poskim are Mattir moving them.

Yes, I’m sure there are people who say otherwise, but I’m talking halacha here.

Guess what? The people who say otherwise are also talking halacha. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you are the final arbiter as to what is halachically correct.

To answer the original question, while I don’t believe they are to be feared, there is good reason not to have them. We (as frum jews) believe in spending our money, efforts, time on things to help us in our growth. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy ice cream. But why bring an animal into the house when you have so much more to be doing? Teach your kids some more. If you have free time, study yourself. Give some money to tzedakah. It’s just a misuse of our valuable resources.

I am not a pet person, but most psychologists say that Pets have a positive effect on people. People who live alone for example are much happier when they have a pet. My grandparents had a dog and it was a good feeling when it went up to you for attention to be petted

avik and momma- move to yerushalayim. then youll understand.

then you know that screaming at them doesnt usually work. my wife and i happen to be very fond of animals. but not yerushalmi cats.

Yerushalmi cats are more plentiful than other cats.