Clean and Unclean

Donni: "Teacher?"

Me: "Yeah?"

Donni: "The Bible says its okay to eat horse?"

Me: "No."

Donni: "But the horse and cow are same?"

Me: "Here, look." (pointing to Leviticus 11) "See, the animal must have split hooves and chew its cud."

Donni: "So we can eat horse?"

Me: "I don't think so." (google "Does a horse chew its cud?" ...)

The horse's (non-ruminant herbivore) gastrointestinal tract differs from that of cattle (ruminant). The horse's soft palate closes after it swallows food, trapping the food in the larynx. In addition, the horse has muscular contractions in the esophagus that only go in a downward direction. Unlike cattle, the horse cannot reverse the direction of esophageal contractions. The cardiac sphincter muscle closes tightly when food enters the stomach and does not release, trapping food in the stomach. Therefore, horses cannot regurgitate their food and chew it again like cattle can.

Donni: "So we can eat horse?"

Me: (... finishing reading) "No, a horse doesn't chew its cud."

Donni: "What is chew cud?"

Me: (I thought about laying it out, "Well Donni, the non-ruminent herbivore horse gastrointestinal tract differs from that of ruminant herbivore cow, you see? .... Instead I just opened my English-Chinese Ap and searched "chew cud.")

Donni: "Oh, I know, I know."