Animal's Semicha

The Torah tells us וסמך ידו על ראש העולה (1:4.)  The Toras Kohanim excludes gentiles from this obligation from the words Bnei Yisroel (1:1.)  The Gemorah in Minachos 93b excludes gentiles from the word korbano (1:4.)  Tosfos (Zevachim 61b) explains that you need both exclusions.  One is to say the korban doesn’t require smicha and the second one to say that someone else doesn’t do smicha for the gentile.  It appears from Tosfos that there are two obligations for smicha.  1. The korban itself requires smicha  2. The owner must do smicha.  Therefore, one exclusion is to exempt the gentile from doing smicha (פטור גברא) and the other exclusion is necessary to exempt the korban from having smicha done to it (פטור חפצא.)  The Rambam also seems to have understood this way.  In the laws of מעשה קרבנות he writes in chapter 3 in laws 5 and 8 those that gentiles are exempted from smicha.  Why does he need to say it twice?  The first time he is explaining there is no obligation from the side of the korban and the second time he excludes the obligation of the owner (see the Rambam inside, it clearly seems that way.)  [There is a greater discussion of this topic in the Amek Bracha, Kuntrosa Shiurim Kiddushin, Briskor Rav Arechin 2a etc.]

The Gemorah Zevachim 6a says that semicha is shiyara mitzvah, yet the Torah considers it part of the kaparah as it says ונרצה לו לכפר עליו.  See Rashi Menachos 93b and Tosfos Yeshanim in Yoma 5a and Ritva there that state that there is something lacking from the kaparah without the semicha.  The Achronim use this idea to explain why bechor, pesach and maaser don’t need smicha (Menachos 92a,) because they don’t have an element of kaparah (see Chazon Yechezkal Temurah 1:8.)  That may also be why the owner can’t fulfill smicha via a shliach (see Rav Hirsch.)  [See also Pneni Kehilas Yaakov volume 2 pg. 189-197 if this plays a role in deciding if the מקדיש or the מתכפר is the one to do semicha, see also Kodshai Yehoshua volume 4 #327.]