This Mishnah will talk about the mitzvah (commandment) of Kisui HaDam (covering the blood), which is after slaughtering a kosher chayah (wild animal). A chayah is an animal that is a wild animal, or an of, a bird; there is a command to cover the blood with earth or something like that. Here, we’ll talk about the specifics of the mitzvah.
The Mishnah says: It applies to unconsecrated animals, but it does not apply to consecrated animals. Any type of animal that was dedicated to the Bet HaMikdash does not need Kisui HaDam. It applies to wild animals and to birds. Those are specified in the Pasuk (verse), where it says, so it’s those specific types of animals. Whether they’re available—that means they’re in one’s house, ready for slaughter—or unavailable, meaning you have to catch them, you have to trap them, and then they could be slaughtered.
The mitzvah of Kisui HaDam applies to a koy, because the koy is a safek (doubt). We don’t know if it’s a chayah or a behemah (domestic animal); it’s a 50-50 chance. So it applies to that as well. We don’t really know what a koy is. There are different theories about what this animal was, but the blood has to be covered because of a safek de’oraita (a doubt under Torah law). Safek de’oraita lechumra (a Torah doubt is treated stringently).
And there’s no need for it on a good day. You’re not allowed to slaughter a koy on a good day. And if a person did slaughter it on Yom Tov (good day), you’re not allowed to do Kisui HaDam. You’re only allowed to do Kisui HaDam for a chayah or an of, even though covering the earth, covering the blood with earth, requires effort. Hachamim (the Sages) said that you’re allowed to do this on Yom Tov for the mitzvah. The allowance should technically apply to a koy as well, since it’s possibly a chayah, and you may be fulfilling a mitzvah. But Hachamim said no, you’re not allowed to cover the blood. You’re not allowed to cover the blood of a koy on Yom Tov, because if we cover it, people are going to think that a koy is a chayah. And when they make that mistake, thinking it’s a chayah, they’ll come to eat the chelev, the forbidden fats of a koy, because eating the chelev of a chayah is permitted. But you’re not allowed to eat the chelev of a koy, because it may not be a chayah; it may be a behemah.