"DOG CAN BE SUPPORTED BY AN ANGEL ..." Author: Archpriest Sergius (Arkhipov).

Question of the believer: 
A dog lives in our apartment Bun. Not pedigree, but very affectionate, clean. No problems have ever occurred with her. Children love her very much. Recently, a believing friend told me that keeping a dog in the house is a sin, because the Bible says that the dog is an unclean animal. How to be now? I cannot throw her out into the street ... 

Fr. Sergius answers: . 
Please tell your friend that nowhere in the Bible is there any mention of the ritual impurity of a dog. The words ... of all four-legged animals, those that walk on their paws, are unclean to you ... (Lev 11:27) equally apply to cats, guinea pigs, hamsters and other pets who walk on their paws, and not, say on hooves. 
But the Old Testament division of animals into "clean" and "unclean" refers exclusively to the possibility of their use in food and does not regulate in any way the relationship of man with living animals.
So, in the Bible there is, for example, an episode where the angel Raphael was the companion of the young man Tobiah. Throughout their journey, they were accompanied by ... a dog: ... And they both went, and the young man’s dog with them (Tov 5:17). If a dog can accompany an angel, why not to live next to a man? And this very division of animals into “clean” and “unclean” was abolished at the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem. 
Therefore, in order to banish your Bun from an apartment, I do not see any grounds of a religious nature. But recall in this regard, the words of the writer Exupery that ... we are responsible for those who we have tamed, I think it would be quite appropriate.