What is the ruling on raising pigeons that consume most of their food from people's crops and leftover sheep fodder, while being provided with a small amount of food to prevent them from escaping, with the intention of reducing expenses, and given their resistance to diseases, alongside societal leniency regarding the crops that pigeons eat?
Keeping pigeons is not free of reprehensibility [karahah], and the ruling may reach the level of prohibition [tahrim] if their harm to crops exceeds what is customary. Imam Ahmad disliked keeping homing pigeons because they eat people's crops.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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