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Why is it common practice not to eat Giraffe Meat?

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5 Answers 5

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Because giraffes are an endangered species, and we'd get in trouble if we started killing them.

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    Michael Kopinsky, Welcome to mi.yodeya, and thanks for the out-of-the-box answer! Please consider clicking register, above, to create your account. This will give you access to all of mi.yodeya's features and will allow you to take full credit for your contributions.
    – Isaac Moses
    Jul 22, 2010 at 16:34
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As By: Rabbi Ari Z. Zivotofsky Ph.D. explains in detail, there is no reason why not to eat Giraffe meat from a Halachic point of view.

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    So as to "why it's not common practice", economics from one perspective or another; plus potentially those who are still halachically nervous -- again, that's economics.
    – Shalom
    Jul 23, 2010 at 11:50
  • I have been told that it tastes gamy and does not have that much meat on it. May 27, 2016 at 16:28
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Another possibility is that it's quite dangerous -- a giraffe can kill a lion with its kick!

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There is another reason: giraffes are very expensive, and very likely to be found a teraifah, so it is not worth it, and also tza'ar baalei chaim to kill it if it will probably not be kosher.

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    Just because it will probably be a t'reifah does not make it tzar baalei haim to kill it if you want to eat it.
    – Yahu
    Jul 5, 2010 at 3:09
  • Even if it's רובא דמינכר that it will be treifah? I'm not so sure about that.
    – Alex
    Jul 5, 2010 at 14:03
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    The Noda Bihuda said that game hunting did not violate the specific prohibition of tzaar baalei chayim per se, as the intent was to kill the animal as directly as possible. Tzaar baalei chayim is about tormenting animals. But I agree that the economics don't add up.
    – Shalom
    Jul 6, 2010 at 14:25
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    Can you source this statistic?
    – Double AA
    Sep 4, 2012 at 19:27
  • They can shecht it and sell it to non-Jews if it's a treifa. In some places, your shochtim work in a treifa slaughterhouse, and they only pay for the animals if they're kosher
    – user613
    Sep 20, 2018 at 23:07
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There are two answers that people say they are both off. The place for Shechting is known it and it is huge. The other answer is there is no market for it put that could be solved with some good marketing (Just look at Sushi).The real answer is to eat something we need a Mesorah that it is Kosher.The Remah says it about birds in Yoreh Deah 82:3. The Chazon Ish(Yoreh Deah 11:4-5) and the Chochmas Adam(36:1) extends this to all animals. Therefore the real reason we don't eat is because we have no Mesorah for it.

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    It's debated whether the Chochmas Adam means you need a tradition that a mammal is kosher, or simply a tradition whether it's treated as "wild" or "domestic."
    – Shalom
    Jul 4, 2010 at 20:44
  • For an informative article about this topic: kashrut.com/articles/giraffe
    – Dave
    Jul 16, 2010 at 16:10
  • Shulchan Halevi brings mesorah into account.
    – sam
    Apr 24, 2013 at 2:47
  • @SimchasTorah If a mesorah is always necessary then we would not be allowed to eat turkey. At some point someone must have decided that this previously unknown bird was kosher without having a mesorah for it.
    – Mike
    Feb 14, 2014 at 2:33
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    @Mike, the need for mesorah on birds is different than the need for mesorah on animals (without taking sides on whether it is required in either case). They have a different underlying reason to require it, so you can't compare.
    – Yishai
    Feb 14, 2014 at 15:03

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