Matt Amos wrote:The term flocks could have included such smaller animals much used by native peoples in Mesoamerica as hares, rabbits, and the paca and agouti (both rodents the size of small pigs).
Dogs are mentioned at five places in the Book of Mormon, but nothing is said of their use. Two types (perhaps two species) were common in Mesoamerica. The large, white, humped mastiff (Nahuatl itzcuintepotzotli) was the creature whose noisy descendants plague Mexican villages today. A smaller, hairless sort (Nahuatl xoloitzcuintli) was fattened and eaten as a delicacy. The Spaniards relished the flesh of these animals at the time of the conquest, although they would have been offended, as most of us would be, at being offered the flesh of the bigger dog. Perhaps Nephite "flocks" included fattened dogs." (Sorenson, John L. An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon. FARMS, 1985. P. 292-3).
Hares, rabbits, two types of rodents (paca and agouti), and dogs. Doesn't that make 5 of 5 unclean animals that the Law-of-Moses-honoring Nephites would NOT have used for food?
Absolutely. Now I am trying to visualise King Limhi's people herding assorted rodents and small dogs as they flee the Lamanites!
I have eaten puppy steaks before, not too bad actually. (Didn't know it at the time of course, until a table-mate pointed out that the small succulent steaks could not be chicken, and the only animals in the village - in East Timor - were chickens and dogs). My now husband who was in a different part of the island tells me that puppy is fine, but when you get served up stringy old dog, you have no doubt about what you are eating.