Is it just me or is there an inverse relationship between frumkeit and pet ownership? How many frummies do you know with pets? Personally I love pets, I always grew up with animals in the house so I find it a little strange that so many frum people I know just don't own animals. In fact if I think back I don't think one person in my high school class besides me had a pet. (Watching the panic my dog could induce in frum people and kol sheken Rabbis was priceless)
I know plenty of MO types (and tons of non-Jews) with animals but what do frummies have against them?
My first though was that pets are for people with one or two kids (and old cat ladies) not for people with an already burgeoning zoo of 10-11 kids. But I find that even frummies with few kids or old people with no kids also don't have them. Why are there no old cat ladies wearing shaitles!!!
Apparently there is a Gemara somewhere that says you can't own a bad dog (does anyone know where that is) but I kind of don't think that's what its all about.
I found this post on Daat Emet. Someone asked Daat Emet "Why don't Chareidim raise pets, like cats and dogs, in their houses"
Basically DE answers that Chareidim are only concerned with "useful" things. You have twenty kids because its a mitzva. You learn Torah because its a mitzva. You eat, and sleep, and go to the bathroom because its a mitzva. Anything that you don't need to survive or to do a mitzva is basically a waste of time. Enjoying yourself is a waste of time. Since owning animals apparently doesn't get you any mitzva points they fall into the category of other pointless things that waste time.
I can imagine all of that about grumpy Israeli Charedim but American Chareidim are a little more chilled out then that. I mean most American Chareidim will allow you to do things just for a little bit of fun. You're allowed to waste some time reading (as long as it's written by Yair Weinstock) or playing baseball.
Is it a hatred of animals? If you've ever seen what Yeshiva guys in Israel do to the ubiquitous stray cats (skila, sreifa, hereg, v'chenek) you start to wonder if there isn't an open animosity towards animals (not to mention the way animals are treated in shlacht houses.) Maybe frummies don't have pets because they secretly (or not so secretly) hate all animals?
So what's is it? Is it because they have too many kids? Is it because its not a mitzva? Is it because they hate animals?
Anyone have any other ideas?
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