Shabbos How-to for Pet Owners
There are various halachic concerns that arise when having pets in the home (see Halachah #88 about raising dogs and Halachah #309 regarding pet birds). When caring for pets on Shabbos, there are additional issues to take into account.
Pet my Pedigreed Persian?
Animals are muktzah (forbidden to be handled) on Shabbos. Therefore petting, otherwise touching or lifting an animal is prohibited. This issur (restriction) includes domesticated pets; although there is a minority opinion that animals kept for companionship or recreation are not muktzah, most poskim reject this dispensation. However, assistance may be given (such as supporting their neck, and shifting limbs without lifting them) to an animal that has difficulty walking on its own (or is otherwise in distress) due to the additional issur of tzaar baalei chaim (causing pain to animals). (This allowance does not extend to chickens since they lift themselves as they ambulate and assisting them is regarded as moving them.)
How to Leash a Labrador
However, it is prohibited by a gezaira d’Rabbanan (Rabbinic decree) to assist a pet walking in reshus harabim (the public domain, i.e., a main thoroughfare or a street directly connected to one) or a karmelis (the semi-public sphere that is not a Torah-proscribed reshus harabim, but similarly restricted by Rabbinic decree). Chazal were concerned that the person assisting the animal would forget themselves and lift the lame animal, and thereby transgress.
There is a chiyuv min haTorah (a Biblical obligation) of shvisas behemto (to let one’s animals rest) on Shabbos. Therefore, a Jewish-owned pet may not carry a load in a reshus harabim (or by Rabbinic decree, in a karmelis). A walking pet is, however, permitted to wear a collar and leash (without dangling decorations—or even identification according to some poskim) in any reshus.
When walking a dog (or another leashed pet) in a reshus harabim or a eruv-less karmelis, it should not appear that the pet-walker is carrying the leash; therefore, the leash should not hang down from the walker’s hand by more than a tefach (four finger-breadths, a measurement of about three inches) and the strip of leash between hand and pet should be held taut, so it should never sag to within a tefach from the ground.
How to Feed a Finch
We are required to feed animals in our care, weekday, Shabbos and Yom Tov, before we sit down to a meal ourselves (see Halachah #244 on feeding one’s animals); on Yom Tov, we are required to place the food a short distance from a kosher animal. However, we may not feed hefker (stray or feral) animals on Shabbos or Yom Tov, since ein mezonoseihem alechah (the onus of feeding them is not on you), even if it is done regularly as a kindness during the week. An exception to the rule is a hefker dog, an animal that we are expressly commanded to have rachmanus (mercy) on, and may therefore feed it on Shabbos.
Can You Collar a Cougar?
There are many issues with trapping animals on Shabbos. For pets that often resist restraint or tend to bolt, restricting their movement may be problematic on Shabbos. Therefore, when walking a frisky pet, even on private property or in public where an eruv exists, it should leashed while still within the confines of a space small enough that the animal is within close reach, and not in an open area.
Most poskim agree that caging, leashing or otherwise confining a pet that is not prone to running away is permitted.