Things An Orthodox Jew Considers Before Getting A Dog

April is asking my husband wants a dog but I heard you say that we should not have a dog why is that uh it's not necessarily you shouldn't have a dog it's that you should take certain things into consideration uh first and foremost when it comes to dogs uh they're good animals their named dog in Hebrew is Kev K it comes K it's a it's the essence of a dog is that it's all heart K uh so dogs are very good animals as far as they're helpers of human beings but that doesn't make everything good on a spiritual end the dogs are considered an impure animal the most impure of all animals uh because they're they're uh they're uh uh not um they're very uh um how do you call it uh you know abrupt or or really uh you know unashamed uh of with with their with their uh you know um procreation you know by themselves or otherwise so they're considered impure animals uh and therefore there's a certain level of Tuma of impurity that the the household gets as a result uh so that's one two uh when it comes to uh Al if a person is going to live a Jewish life they need to know that uh first it's a big responsibility and the responsibility is that if you're going to eat you have to feed the animal first you have to feed the dog first because if you don't if you eat before your dog does it's it's a Tor it's a Biblical violation of of torturing animal anal because the animal can't feed itself so you have to take this into account there certain certain laws you need to learn in order to have a dog second thing is you're not allowed to uh hold the dog or pet the dog uh on Shabbat because the dog is considered M any pet any pet uh you know the dog or cat or a cow they're all considered M so you're not allowed to uh uh to pet them so which means that walking the dog on Shabbat is a little bit difficult uh you know so unless you have you know big backyard and you can just release the dog that's the best uh that's the best idea you can just let them out they you know relieve themselves and then come back that's perfectly fine but you can't uh uh uh you know uh walk them uh like you would uh during the week uh if you're going to walk them during you know during the uh Shabbat you can't touch the animal you have to have a short leash so the leash doesn't hang so there's a lot ofic things a person needs to know in order to have a dog most people you know already uh you know if they're new to Judaism they are uh already having a tough time learning the the laws of Shabbat alone needless to say the laws of dogs on Shabbat so that's another reason you know we don't need more sense last thing I would say also is that dogs are a responsibility it's like having another person in your house uh you have to feed it you have to take care of its medical issues you have to make sure that you're giving the dog food that is koser for Passover during PES uh you know it's again I'm assuming all of these things are for for Jews non-jews have an easier time with dogs because they don't have a lot of the laws that I'm talking about but for Jews you have to know your dog food has to be K you know you can't feed your dog food your dog dog food that's from I don't know Walmart or something on PES because that'sit so if if a person is not Jewish then they don't have to worry about such a thing if they're Jewish they do have to worry about it uh because it's a Biblical sin that why would anybody want a death penalty for having a dog food so these are certain things that most people don't necessarily think about uh you know and also it's a responsibility to have a dog where if you want to take a trip somewhere you have to uh be concerned about who's going to take care of the dog uh if you travel if you uh you know have a uh a job that requires you to be out of the house a lot and so on it's not exactly ideal situation for a dog because the dog needs company usually uh needs company so if you're going to travel and so on and every time you know have uh you know that dog sitting in some kennel for a week that's torture it's better not to have the dog uh if you're going to have somebody take care of the dog and make sure that person is responsible then it's fine I used to have a dog I had a dog for 16 years his name is Bully he's even in one of my videos my Torah videos I learned something from him you know about Chua where you know he was a really cute dog it was a great dog and uh uh but he would shed he would shed a lot and uh but uh you know the after you would get out of off the carpet it would look like the carpet should be thrown in the garbage but then uh you know after you clean the carpet uh the carpet looks brand new and it's in essence I learned from there that's like chuva you know when a person first starts doing Chua it looks like you have too many sins to fix looks like you're too dirty but in reality once a person starts taking chuva seriously and starts learning they realize they can become completely clean just like the page 86 says that a person can turn all of their uh sins into mitv even if their Chua is high enough so uh you know that's that's one of the things I learned from my dog uh so the point is that a person needs to uh take a lot more into consideration uh when it comes to owning a dog than just the fact that they're cute uh and also last but not least uh you know it's uh it's it's a Torah violation to have a dangerous dog unless that dangerous dog is not endangering anyone meaning you have a protection dog that's away from everybody that's protecting your land or someone and no one can get hurt from it that's fine but if you have a dog that's dangerous it's a the says that such a person is a uh that even causes people to have less because of it um it's uh because a dog that's a dangerous dog a dog that barks really loud can make a pregnant woman have a miscarriage and there's a story about it one of the uh people had a dog with bark a lot and some woman uh that was pregnant passed by in the market and the dog barked at her and the woman uh jumped and the man says Ah don't worry don't worry about it that nothing nothing's going to happened to you I removed all of his teeth and the woman says to him uh I don't need you uh to uh I don't need your words and I don't need your favors uh because I already I just lost a baby meaning that she had a miscarriage because his dog barked at her so that person gets a sin that person gets a sin for having such a dog and the Torah says that it's very very dangerous to have spiritually dangerous to have a dog that's dangerous and and many times those are the dogs people want and uh you know it's so it's it's again it's it's it's a big responsibility if a person knows how to handle a dog both from a alic perspective as well as a moral perspective then they can have a dog that's perfectly fine but if they do not it's better off not to have it uh oh and also another is when not allowed to neuter them Jews are not allowed to neuter animals considered uh torture of the animal which is a very common practice in the world today especially in America it's almost like unheard of not to neuter animals uh but it's considered 100% a sin to do such a thing not allowed to neuter an animal there's no there's no permission to just torture the animal oh know it makes them healthier okay we'll cut your part off and let's see how healthy you become it's complete nonsense not allowed to do such a thing it's evil and again this is what people would want you to do why because I'm going to tell you listen if you don't do it then the animal could be more aggressive and blah blah blah okay they don't have the animal simple there's no obligation to have an animal no obligation so again it's a lot to consider a lot to consider uh this is the reason why despite you know uh having a very close relationship with my dog and liking dogs and and thinking that dogs are great we never got a new one after uh after bully died you know I had him for 16 years and uh you was a great dog was was uh you know wonderful wonderful animal but the uh the more I learned the more I realized that it's uh it's a responsibility I did not want uh especially since I uh we just had our first kid at the time and it was uh very uh you know uh concerning constantly you know if uh you know even though the dog would never even like uh uh you know uh do anything is not a you know great dog but still it's just it's always in the back of your mind because at the end of the day as much as you like the dog it's still an animal it's still an animal you know so a person needs to take a lot into consideration and uh if they took everything I just said and more into consideration and still think that they can have a dog go have a dog uh but um you know if most people you know are usually not going to have it uh because of uh all of the reasons that I just told you or other reasons I haven't mentioned in a religious world not in a religious World obviously it's you know different world 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