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People who own animals which depend upon them for food, must be fed. When their feeding time has come, the owner may not eat until they have been fed. As we read, “I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you shall eat your fill” (Deuteronomy 11:15). First, one provides grass for the animal, and only afterwards “you shall eat your fill.” In general, the Sages instruct people not to take in an animal unless they know they can feed it properly.
If someone sees a donkey collapsing under a heavy load, there is a mitzva to help unload it. As we read, “If you see the donkey of your enemy lying under its burden, will you refrain from raising it? You must help him with it” (Exodus 23:5). In other words, even if one does not want to help because of the enmity, the Torah requires overcoming the evil inclination and helping. There are two reasons for this. First, a person should not refrain from helping someone in need, even if the two of them are embroiled in a dispute. Second, a person should relieve the suffering of the donkey collapsing under its heavy load.
If an animal is working a field, one may not prevent it from eating from the crops, as we read, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing” (Deuteronomy 25:4).
If a bird is sitting on its eggs or chicks, one may not take them, nor may one capture the mother bird while it is so positioned. For the Torah commands us not to take advantage of the mother’s need to guard its eggs or chicks. Only after sending the mother bird away from the nest, may one capture it or take the eggs or chicks. As we read, “If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life” (Deuteronomy 22:6-7).
