Answer
Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Feeding pets with unlawful meat or other things is permissible, as long as there will be no harm inflicted on the animals because of this food.
Answering the above question, Dr. Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qasim, Professor of Shari`ah at Cairo University, states:
It is permissible to feed house pets with meat that has not been properly slaughtered. They may also be given food that is deemed impure in Islamic Law provided that there is no risk of that food harming the animal.
In the Hanafi book Bada’i` As—Sana’i` (1/78), we read: “Imam Abu Hanifah holds the opinion that it is permissible to feed dogs dough made of flour which is mixed with impure water. This is because whatever becomes impure is unlawful for human consumption, but it may still be utilized.”
This is the opinion held by most prominent scholars. It is related by Ibn `Umar that while on a journey with the Prophet (peace be upon him), the people stopped to rest in the land of Thamud (Hijr). They took water from its well and made dough with this water. However, the ordered them to pour out the water and feed the dough to their camels. (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Scholars cite the above narration as evidence that it is permissible to feed things to animals that are not permitted in Islamic Law for human consumption.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Excerpted, with slight modifications, from: www.islamtoday.net
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.