Hunting Dog and Cheetah

“Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), has said, ‘It is in the book of Ali (a.s.), about the meaning of the words of Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, . . and whatever of the hunting beasts you may train. . . He (the Imam) has said, ‘It is a reference to (hunting) dogs.’”

“About the case of a man who sends a hunting dog with the mention of the name of Allah, the two Imam, ‘Alayhim al-Salam, have stated this Hadith. ‘If the dog catches the prey and you arrive to slaughter it properly, then you must do so; but if you arrive when it has already killed the prey and has eaten thereof you can also eat what is left, however, you must not apply to other hunting animals what you apply to hunting dogs.’”

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a dog which catches the prey, holds it in place and has eaten a part thereof. He (the Imam) said, ‘Dog’s eating is not harmful and it is lawful for you to use it for food.’”

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a man who sends his trained dog to catch a prey and mentions the name of Allah. He (the Imam) said, ‘He can use for food what the dog has caught and he must slaughter it properly, if he arrives at the site before the dog kills the prey. He must not use the catch for food if he finds a non-hunting dog with it.’ I asked about Cheetah. He (the Imam) said, ‘If you arrive in time to slaughter it properly then you can use it for food, otherwise, you cannot use it for food.’ I then asked, ‘Is not Cheetah like dog?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘No other animals are called Mukallab (dogged, trained dogs) except dogs.’”

“Abu Ja‘far (a.s.), has said, ‘What is killed by dogs trained for hunting and the name of Allah is mentioned, you can use it for food, and what is killed by dogs not trained before and before you arrive to slaughter properly, then do not use it for food.’”

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the hunting dog which hunts and kills the prey. He (the Imam) said, ’It is not unlawful and you can use it for food.’ I then said, ’They say that if the dog kills the prey it has caught it for itself, thus, you must not use it for food.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘You can use it for food. Do they not all agree with you that its kill is proper slaughtering?’ I replied, ‘Yes, it is true.’ He (the Imam) then asked, ‘What do they say about a sheep slaughtered by a man? Is his slaughtering proper?’ I replied, ‘Yes, he has done so.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘If a beast comes and after his slaughtering eats something from the slaughtered sheep can the rest be used for food?’ I replied, ‘Yes, it can be used for food.’ He (the Imam) said that if they answer you in this way ask them this question. ‘How is it that even though what is slaughtered properly (the catch of the trained hunting dog) and the dog ate thereof, you do not use the rest for food, but you use for food the sheep slaughtered by a man and a beast eats thereof?”’

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a man who sends his dog and he arrives at the site when the dog has killed the prey. He (the Imam) said, ‘You can use it for food even if the dog has eaten thereof.’”

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a man who sends his dog to catch a prey which the dog catches; but he does not have a knife to slaughter it and about if he can leave it alone for the dog to kill and eat thereof. He (the Imam) said, ‘It is not unlawful because Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, has said, ‘Eat what they catch for you’, but it is not proper to eat what a cheetah has killed.’”

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the hunting of Falcons, hawks, dogs and leopards. He (the Imam) said, ‘Do not use for food what is hunted by any of these unless you slaughter it properly, except dogs trained for hunting.’ I then asked, ‘What happens if the dog kills it?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘You can use it for food; Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, says, “. . . and what you train of dogs for hunting, eat of what they catch for you and mention the name of Allah on it.” (5:4)’”

“I heard Salman saying, ‘You can use for food the prey that dogs catch for you even if the dog has eaten two-thirds of it.’”

“Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), has said, ‘The dogs of al-Kurdiyah (Kurdish people), when you train them, are like the dogs of al-Saluqiyyah (name of town in Yemen).”’

“I once asked abu ‘ Abd Allah (a.s.), about dog trained for hunting which has eaten of the prey. He (the Imam) said, ‘You can use it (the prey) for food.”’

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a man who sends his dog, it catches a prey and eats thereof: if one can use the remaining for food. He (the Imam) said, ‘You can use for food what a dog has killed when you mention the name of Allah on it. If you forget to do so you still can use it for food as well as the remaining of what the dog has eaten.’”

“About the case of a man’s sending a hunting dog, with the mention of the name of Allah, to catch a prey, abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), has stated this Hadith. ‘He can use it (the catch) for food even if the dog kills it and has eaten thereof. If the dog is not trained already for hunting, but is trained at that hour, then is sent to catch and it did and ate thereof, the dog is still a trained dog. On the other hand different from hunting dogs is what leopards, hawks and similar animals hunt. You must not use it for food unless you arrive in time to slaughter it properly; Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, says, ‘Mukallabin’ (dogged, trained dogs), thus, what is different from dogs its hunting is not edible unless you arrive in time to slaughter it.’”

“Once abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), was asked about the hunting of falcons and dogs that kill the prey and eat thereof; if the remaining can be used for food. He (the Imam) said, ‘Do not use for food what birds like falcons kill, unless you slaughter it properly; but if it is killed by dog when you have mentioned the name of Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, you can use it for food even if the dog has eaten thereof.’”

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about a dog that slips away without his owner’s sending to hunt but it hunts and the owner arrives when it has killed the prey; if he can use it for food. He (the Imam) said, ‘No, it is not lawful for food.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘If it hunts and the name of Allah is mentioned he can use it for food but if the name of Allah is not mentioned he must not use it for food and that is the meaning of ‘. . .and what you train of dogs for hunting.’”

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about my sending a dog to hunt and after mentioning the name of Allah, when I have nothing with me to slaughter the prey. He (the Imam) said, ‘Allow the dog to kill the prey, then you can use it for food.’”

“Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), has said, ‘If a man sends a dog but forgets to mention the name of Allah, it then is like slaughtering and forgetting to mention the name of Allah and so also is the case of shooting the prey with an arrow and forgetting to mention the name of Allah.’”

“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a people who send their trained dogs to hunt and who mention the name of Allah. When the dogs go, a stray dog joins them and the dogs jointly hunt. He (the Imam) said, ‘Do not use it for food because you do not know if the trained ones have hunted it or the one without training.’”

“Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), has said that ’Amir al-Mu’minin has said, ‘What a very black colored dog hunts is not edible because the Messenger of Allah, O Allah, grant compensation to Muhammad and his family worthy of their services to Your cause, commanded to kill it.’”