The ruling on an old bull abandoned by its owner

Question

Question: Near our settlement there are villages of Hindus. The people there, more often than not, deliberately leave behind such animals — cows and bulls — as have become useless and are of no use for anything, because of which the fields suffer considerable damage. If they are put into the cattle pound, the clerk refuses to accept them. May (such an animal) be slaughtered with the permission of the village headman and the like? Legally, permission cannot be obtained at all.

Answer

Written permission cannot be obtained from the village headman either. If those people commit transgression — they do not keep the animals tied up, and they cause damage — then whatever means of protection is suitable may be adopted. They may also be driven back toward those people’s own villages.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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