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From: smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Babirusa -- the "almost" pig.  Is it Kosher?
Message-ID: <1062@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Nov-84 22:25:47 EST
Article-I.D.: ulysses.1062
Posted: Mon Nov 26 22:25:47 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Nov-84 04:27:04 EST
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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Today's "Science News" casts doubt on the factual basis of that report.
In particular, the original study (by the National Research Council)
based its comments on a 1940 autopsy report, which said that the stomach
"presents striking similarities to that of a relatively simple ruminant
such as the domestic sheep."  However, Warren Thomas of the Los Angeles
Zoo -- home of this country's only babirusas -- says "the babirusa has
a slightly modified, a sacculated, stomach, a little different from other
pigs, but it is not a ruminant.  I'm sure they don't chew their cud."  He
also points out that they reproduce much more slowly than pigs do, which
casts doubts on the economics of raising them.

Oh yes -- the Jewish Theological Seminary has been bombarded with calls
about the babirusas...