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The masculine pronoun also suggests preferential use of male animals for food or sacrifice, e.g., 1 Chronicles 29:21 and Malachi 1:14. Also, mothers are forbidden to be used as food, e.g., Deuteronomy 22:6-7. Mothers might also be understood to have the “blood of another” in them (as with human babies, cattle embryo blood types are determined paternally, thus it differs from the mother’s blood). http://www.ilri.cgiar.org/InfoServ/Webpub/fulldocs/X5443E/X5443E19.HTM