The two Ṣaḥīḥ collections record, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, that the Prophet ﷺ said: “A woman was punished because of a cat which she confined until it died of hunger; she neither fed it nor released it so that it might eat the insects of the earth.” This establishes that spending on animals and on one’s slaves is obligatory, for the very cause of that woman’s entry into Hell was her failure to provide for the cat and her preventing it from seeking its own food. If this ruling holds for a cat that was not owned, it applies even more decisively to animals that are owned. This is the position adopted by the majority of scholars.

The same report also shows that it is permissible to keep ornamental birds—such as canaries, parrots, and the like—in cages, provided they are regularly fed and given water and are not subjected to cruelty.

Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh was asked about the permissibility of killing animals from which no apparent benefit is derived, out of a desire to spare them possible harm or relieve them of hardships they might face. He replied: “We inform you that killing these animals is not permissible according to the Sacred Law, as the jurists have stated explicitly. Al-Iqnaʿ and its commentary read: ‘One is obliged to give them whatever fodder and the like they require.’”