Look and understand this from a bigger picture. Because It is always the case when questions like this are asked, the whole counsel of the Bible is ignored particularly, The New Testament.

Let me start by saying The Old Testament MUST be understood in the Light of the New Testament. This is something that cannot be argued or reasoned with. Else it is pointless and meaningless.

It is not rude or insensitive but lack of complete knowledge. Do you know, God himself made a profound statement in

Acts 10:15 (NLT) - But the voice spoke again: "Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean." Peter was referring to unclean animals as you mentioned in leviticus. This has to do with pork as well.

Then we need to understand, why is there a New Testament and the Old? Why is it that Old Forbid but in The New Testament even Jesus says it is not the food that you eat that makes you unclean (referring to the above scriptures that you mentioned) but your heart, what comes out of your mouth, you defile yourself with the intent. Jesus gave a revelation here the work of "sin", one that is internal and it's not in the food and yet in the Old Testament, there are so many Laws, Rules and Regulations, Rituals pertaining to outward things that causes Sin even like Dead Bodies, you cannot touch them, if you do, you'll be unclean.

And yet today, love ones who have passed away...we can touch them and it is not sinful. Like for example, a father who holds his dead son/daughter in his arm for the last time. Of course Chinese culture have this ceremony to clean himself when doing this by bathing in water soaked with some sort of leave. Christians..we just bathe as normal.

Why the difference?

If you have spiritual eyes and ear to hear and see this;

You'll come to realize that

The Old Testament is in away for God let Man know we have problem in justifying ourselves because of Sin. We are too stubborn to acknowledge or accept that. We want to justify ourselves because the flesh in us, want self glorification.

So for 2 thousand years God allow Man to have his way with the Laws and yet there is not one who can uphold all the laws completely.  Some may be able to do it outwardly but unable internally. You should ask a better question; what is the purpose of the Law?  In a very summarise answer, the Law is given to let us know we have Sin. That is the "only" purpose..no other purpose. If there are Christians who tells you we must uphold to the Law so as not to defile ourselves, tell him to read the Book of Galatians. That was never the purpose. The Bible even calls the Ten Commandments a Ministry of "death", not life. That is why any religion that still holds on to Law Base have so much problems in this world today. particularly you friends religion that you mentioned above.

If you understand Romans 14, it is not so much about whether a pig is unclean or a dog is unclean. It depends on what God says is unclean and you are to follow through under the Old Covenant, because it can be a kangaroo or an donkey per say. Everything hinges back to what God says.

One more thing..LaVilla.

Read Romans 14:1-9

1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

I like to affirm unknown's statement, "Let me start by saying The Old Testament MUST be understood in the Light of the New Testament.".

Leviticus is a book of types, a book of typology. In simple term, spiritual and divine things are portrayed or conveyed using signs, characters, things etc in the Old Testament. So, if you are in the Old Testament age, as a Israelites, you don't consume living creatures that are not clean with respect to diet.  The diet determines the holy living of the priests and the Israelites in the Old Testament.

But, the Israelites is a type of the New Testament believers in reality. We are the "TRUE ISRAELITES" in spirit as Paul shared in his Epistles.

Then, what does it mean in our experience in the New Testament?

A. To Contact the Things outside of Us That Could Affect Us Inside

To eat is to contact the things outside of us that could affect us inside. This especially refers to our contacting of people. When we eat we contact something that is outside of us, something that has nothing to do with us. However, if we eat that thing, it can affect us inside. In Leviticus 11 the things we eat signify people, and eating signifies our contacting of people.

B. To Receive Things from the Outside That Can Be Digested Inside to Become Our Constituent Expressed in Our Living

To eat is not merely to contact something but also to receive something into us. Once a thing is received into us, that thing can be digested inside to become our constituent, that is, our being, our constitution. We all are a constitution of the food we eat and digest. Eventually, what we digest becomes us; it becomes our very constitution. This indicates that contacting people is an important matter. If we intend to live a holy life as required by the holy God, we need to be careful about our contact with people. Our contact with certain kinds of people can cause us to be reconstituted and thus make us another kind of person. Whatever we contact we will receive, and whatever we receive will reconstitute us, making us a different kind of person from what we are now.

For example,

Beasts that do not divide the hoof and beasts that go on their paws (vv. 4-8a, 26a, 27a) signify persons who do not have discernment in their activities and persons who walk and move without discernment. Beasts that divide the hoof and chew the cud (vv. 2-3) signify persons who have discernment in their activities and who receive the word of God with much reconsideration.

Aquatic animals that do not have fins and scales (vv. 10-12) signify persons who cannot move and act freely in the world and at the same time resist its influence. Such people do not have the strength to resist the influence of the sinful world. Aquatic animals having fins and scales (v. 9) signify persons who can move and act freely in the world and at the same time resist its influence. In the Bible, the sea signifies the fallen, corrupted world. The whole world today is a vast sea, and many of those living in this sea do not have fins or scales. They cannot move freely in the world and at the same time resist its influence. As believers in Christ, we should have fins and scales and therefore be able to act freely in the sea of the world without being salted by it.

Birds that eat flesh and carcasses as their food supply (vv. 13-19) signify persons who live in contact with death. In their eating they contact death. The more we contact those who, spiritually speaking, are full of death, the more we shall be defiled by death. If we contact such a person, we shall be filled with spiritual death. Birds that have wings for flying and that eat seeds of life as the food supply (cf. vv. 13-19) signify persons who can live and move in a life that is away from and above the world and who take things of life as their supply of life. Because clean birds have wings for flying, they are able to fly away from and above the world.

So, it is not an outward practice to eat pork or not, but rather WHO ARE YOU CONTACTING in your living as a Christian that matters and what kind of person you are within