Why is giraffe meat forbidden, while deer meat is permissible, even though neither has fangs?

Scholars differed concerning the ruling on eating giraffe meat. Some held it to be permissible, as this is the default ruling, and because the giraffe does not possess a canine tooth (nab) that would render it unlawful. Its permissibility was explicitly stated in the fatwas of Al-Qadi Al-Husseini and Al-Ghazali, and this is also reported as the text from Imam Ahmad. Others, however, maintained its prohibition, arguing that it has a canine tooth and that it is born from a permissible and an impermissible animal.

The preponderant opinion is that it is permissible, because the prohibition of eating animals with canine teeth is specific to predatory beasts that attack and seize with their fangs, and the giraffe is not like that. Furthermore, it is not born from a mixture of permissible and impermissible animals.