“Hot car laws” criminalize leaving an animal in a vehicle in extreme weather, and some hot car laws allow these animals to be rescued from vehicles in certain circumstances and make the rescuer immune from civil or criminal liability. Anti-tethering laws limiting how long pets can be tied up or chained outside, especially in extreme weather, are also growing in popularity, as are laws allowing pets to be included in domestic violence protective orders.
(American Legal Defense Fund)
3.
6) 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.
This is showing us that we need to spare the mother the emotional pain of seeing her "children" (the eggs) being taken away from her nest. We take the birds feelings into account.
(א) שלא לחסום בהמה בשעת מלאכתה - שלא נמנע הבהמה מלאכול ממה שתעבד בו בשעת עבודה, כגון שתדוש תבואה או תשא תבן, ממקום למקום על גבה, שאין רשות לנו למנעה מלאכול ממנה, ועל זה נאמר (דברים כה ד) לא תחסם שור בדישו.
4.
(1) To not muzzle an animal at the time of its work: To not prevent an animal from eating that which it is working on, at the time of its work - for example, when it threshes grain or carries straw from place to place on its back - as we do not have permission to prevent it from eating from it. And about this is it stated (Deuteronomy 25:4), "You shall not muzzle an ox in its threshing."
5.
(27) When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall stay seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering by fire to the LORD.
6.
(28) However, no animal from the herd or from the flock shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young.
7.
(24) You shall not offer to the LORD anything [with its testes] bruised or crushed or torn or cut. You shall have no such practices in your own land,
You cannot castrate animals.
8.
12) Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor, in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and that your bondman and the stranger may be refreshed.
The torah brings up the concept of shabbat and how we are required to rest. Not only does it tell us that we as people need to rest, it also specifies that shabbat is here for animals!
The Ramban’s position in devarim perek chaf bet passuk vav: "is that the prohibition on cruelty is intended to inculcate good middot in us and not simply to be kind to the animal itself. If the prime concern was animal welfare, we would not allow shechita at all!
In sefer Morah Perek Slishi it says:
As such, he understands that the reasons for the mitzvot not to slaughter an animal and its child on the same day, and the mitzvah to send away the mother bird are both because of emotional pain to the animal. Indeed, when it comes to emotional pain, the Rambam sees no difference between animals and humans.
In Bava Metzia:
Chazal viewed the suffering of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi as a result of his cruel attitude to a calf going to slaughter.
Even those who punish animals get punished!
The Shulchan Aruch rules on a halacha regarding a cow stuck in a ditch on Shabbat: Presumably agreeing that TBC is min haTorah. The Rema, when dealing with the issue of a struggling animal owned by a non-Jew, also rules that the prohibition of TBC is min haTorah. One must therefore help the animal no matter who owns it and whether or not the owner is actually present.
One would think in this situation that if the animal is owned by a non Jew or if there is a non Jew in the area that the Jew would not be able help the animal. This however is not the case, the mitzvah of protecting and saving an animal (like you would be allowed to for a human) lets you violate shabbat. "Pikuach Nefesh"
Rav Ovadia Yosef rules that it prohibited to attend a bull fight. Among other sources he brings the statement of Chazal that one must feed one’s animal before oneself and also that the inherent traits of the Jewish people are to be kind and merciful.
14.
(26) And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.”
Mankind was not created as ‘just another’ animal. The world is given over to Man to subdue and to use. Man has an innate superiority over the animal kingdom due to his ‘tzelem elokim’ i.e ability to make moral choices.
We should not be using our free will and power to be causing harm to animals. We should be using our free will to treat them well and morally
(א) מצות שחיטה - שכל מי שירצה לאכל בשר (בהמה חיה או עוף) שישחט אותם תחלה כראוי, ולא יהיה לו התר אלא בזביחה, ועל זה נאמר (דברים יב כא) וזבחת מבקרך ומצאנך כאשר צויתיך וגו'. ולשון ספרי (כאן) מה מקדשים בשחיטה, אף חלין בשחיטה. כאשר צויתיך מלמד שנצטוה משה רבנו על הושט ועל הגרגרת, ועל רב אחד בעוף, ועל רב שנים בבהמה, פרוש, לא שיהיה כן במשמע הכתוב, אלא שהצווי הזה באה הקבלה עליו שהיה כן שנצטוה בכל ענין השחיטה, כמו שידוע לנו בסכין. ושעור מקום השחיטה בושט ובקנה ושאר הענינים.
16.
1) The commandment of slaughter: That anyone who wants to eat ([domesticated] beast, [wild] animal or bird) meat first slaughter them as is fit, and that there not be [another way to] permit [it] besides slaughter. And about this is it stated (Deuteronomy 12:21), "you may slaughter from your your cattle or your flock [...], as I have commanded you, etc." And the language of Sifrei Devarim 75:7,16 is, "Just like consecrated [animals] are with slaughter, so too are the non-sacred [animals] with slaughter. [...] 'As I have commanded you' teaches us that Moshe, our teacher, was commanded as to the esophagus and the trachea and as to the [cutting of] the majority of one in a bird and the majority of two, in a beast." The understanding is not that it be such from the understanding of the verse, but rather that upon this commandment came the tradition that it was like this that he was commanded about all the matters of slaughter - as is known to us about the knife, the place of the slaughter [on the animal] on the esophagus and the windpipe and the rest of the matters.
17.
The Rema (in Even Haezer) rules that animals may be used for all humans needs, including medical. Nevertheless he records that people are accustomed to avoid using animals in a way which is unnecessarily cruel.
18.
The Animal Welfare act, signed into law in 1966 and updated by several amendments, is the only federal law that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, and transport, and by dealers. It applies to all research involving animals in the U.S., but it does not apply to all animals. It is limited to warm-blooded animals, and it does not cover many of those – most notably excluding mice, rats, and birds, which along with fish make up 95 percent of the animals used in research. Other laws, policies, and guidelines cover additional species or include more specifications for animal care and use, but all refer to the Animal Welfare Act as the minimum acceptable standard. The law focuses mainly on setting standards for animal housing and basic pain control.
Rav Moshe Feinstein in Igerret Moshe:
On the current issue of fattening calves where each calf is kept in a separate tight location where there do not even have room to move a few steps and where they do not feed them normal animal food suitable for calves ,nor can they drink their own mothers’s milk. Ratherthey are over-fed with high-fat liquids which are not good for them ... and they become ill from this and need treatment. According to expert shochtim, only 15%of them are halachically kosher... Those people who engage in this practice are definitely violating the prohibition of causing cruelty to animals. Even though animals are permitted for human use, that is only where there is a need, such as slaughter for food, working them for ploughing, carrying and such like.
Nevertheless, to simply cause them distress is prohibited even if a person may benefit from it... We see indeed that a person is not allowed to do everything which distresses an animal even if it yields benefit, but only something which is for a real human benefit, like slaughter and working etc.
Similarly, it is permitted to feed them with foods which help to fatten and improve the taste of the meat in such a way that will benefit people who eat it who will enjoy it more than it was when unimproved .... Nevertheless it is prohibited to cause pain to the animal and to feed it things which are not good for it and which distress it when it eats them or which make them suffer from illnesses. For a benefit such as this, it is prohibited to do such things because of the prohibition of cruelty to animals, which is min haTorah.
Rav Moshe Feinstein makes it clear that cruel breeding methods are assur in halacha. However, this does not necessarily mean that there is a halachic prohibition on eating the meat of those animals (unless some kind of argument can be made for lifnei iver - causing or assisting others in doing issurim) as long as they are still kosher. Nevertheless, the would certainly be nothing wrong with avoiding such meat on ethical grounds.
20.
Source from Chabbad.org
Beyond that, Jewish Law prohibits causing any unnecessary pain to animals. This is derived from the injunction in Devarim (22:4) “You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen [under its load] on the road, and ignore them.” Here, the Torah requires a Jew to help unload an overburdened pack animal as quickly as possible, even if the animal belongs to a wicked person.11 Similarly, kosher slaughter is done in a way that causes the animal the least amount of pain.
If one hunts and leaves the game writhing in pain, or maimed for the rest of its life, one clearly transgresses this moral code. One could argue, however, that the above rule does not apply in a case where one kills the animal and swiftly takes it out of its pain.
21.
American law varies depending on the state but most allow it in hunting specific areas, as long as the animal is not endangered.
Gerald and Karen Feldheimer Halacha Yomi:
Gemara in Berachos 40a. Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: It is forbidden to eat before feeding one’s animals as it is written, “And I will provide grass in your field for your animals, and you will eat and be satisfied” (Devarim 11:15). The Torah lists animals before people to teach us that we must provide food for our animals before we are permitted to eat. The Maharam MiRutenberg (quoted by Magen Avrohom 271:12) holds that this is a Torah prohibition, derived from this pasuk. However, the Mishnah Berurah (Beiur Halachah 167, s.v. U’mikol) writes that according to most poskim, this drasha is not a Biblical source but rather an “asmachta” (an allusion to a Rabbinic prohibition from a verse in the Torah). Nevertheless, if an animal is suffering from hunger and one withholds food, this is a violation of tzaar baalei chaim (causing undue pain to animals), which according to many is a Torah prohibition.
Gerald and Karen Feldheimer Halacha Yomi:
Poskim write that the obligation to feed our animals before we eat pertains to any animal that one is responsible to feed. In fact, the Birkei Yosef (OC 157:4) writes that the Ariza”l admonished a student who had neglected to feed his chickens before he ate. The Sheilas Yaavetz (1:17) writes that this includes even fish which are dependent on being fed by humans. However, the Sheilas Yaavetz writes that there is room to be lenient regarding cats and dogs. Cats and dogs by nature are hunters and scavengers. If a cat is not fed, it can hunt for birds and mice. A dog will rummage through the garbage or dig up an old bone. Furthermore, Chazal (Shabbos 155b) say that it takes a dog three days to digest its food. He concludes that it is proper to feed cats and dogs before one eats, but there is a basis to be lenient.
One must feed guests before feeding their animals. He bases this on the Gemara (Shabbos 127a): “Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav, caring for guests is greater than greeting G-d’s presence.” If the mitzvah to feed guests is so important, it stands to reason that it supersedes the obligation to feed animals. Similarly, Igeros Moshe (OC 2:52) writes that feeding babies or small children who cannot feed themselves takes precedence to feeding animals.