Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society The Queens Zoo's new trio of mulefoot hogs awaits your visit.What's new at the Queens Zoo these days is three female mulefoot hogs.
The mulefoot, a domestic hog named for its unusual non-cloven hoof, is black, beautiful and classified as “critically rare†by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.
A century ago, according to the conservancy, the mulefoot was widely bred in the Midwest “for ease of fattening and production of meat, lard and especially hams.†But it is no longer commonly bred by farmers, the zoo said.
The ladies, still unnamed, are a year old and can be visited on the zoo's farm.
It was not immediately clear whether the meat of hogs with uncloven hooves was considered kosher.
Update, 4:26 p.m. | City Room, based on its extremely poor religious training, made the mistake above of wondering aloud whether meat from a pig with an uncloven hoof would still be considered nonkosher.
Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer of the kashrut division of the Orthodox Union, the largest kosher certification organization in the world, quickly set us straight.
“Actually this pig is even worse than all other pigs,†he said. “Not only does it not chew its cud, it doesn't have a split hoof.â€
Split hoof = kosher. Unsplit = nonkosher. The thing that makes pigs nonkosher is that they don't chew their cud. We will remember this. Thanks, Rabbi.
