Is the owner obligated to provide maintenance for a possessed animal?
Chapter on Maintenance of Slaves
Al-Mughni
Book of Maintenance (Nafaqāt)
Primary text
The owner of an animal is obligated to maintain it and provide what it requires, such as fodder or hiring someone to look after it. This obligation is established based on the report from Ibn Umar that the Prophet (PBUH) stated a woman was punished because she confined a cat until it died of starvation, neither feeding it nor letting it go to eat from the creatures of the earth. This is agreed upon (Muttafaqun 'Alayhi). If the owner refuses to provide maintenance, they must be compelled to do so. If they refuse compulsion or are incapable, they must be compelled to sell the animal or slaughter it if it is an animal that can be slaughtered.
Supporting text
Abu Hanifa holds that the ruler does not compel the owner; rather, the ruler only commands good conduct and forbids evil, because the animal does not possess a right in the legal sense, as evidenced by the fact that it cannot initiate or be represented in a lawsuit, rendering it similar to crops and trees.