Q. Are there any halachic issues with destroying/removing a bird's nest that has appeared in a light fixture outside one's home?
A. The Talmud (Baba Metzia 32a,b) quotes opinions if tzaar baaley chaim or the affliction caused to animals is a biblical or a rabbinical prohibition. Most Poiskim agree that it is a biblical proscription (Shulchan Aruch CH.M. 272:9 – see Sdey Chemed, letter tzadik 1, for a comprehensive list of opinions).
However, it is permitted to use animals for one's convenience, as needed. Trumas Hadeshen (Psokim 105) derives this from the saying in the Talmud (Kidushin 82a) that animals "were created for my (human) use" and from the fact that we encounter in the Torah, their widespread employ, as in riding and working with them. Chasam Sofer (Baba Metzia ibid.) mentions, as a source for this consent, the verse: "and rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the sky and over all the beast." (Bereshit 1:28).
Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit"a opinion is, that if a bird's nest became a nuisance and a source of inconvenience, their removal is permitted. Yet care should be taken to do so in a gentle and considerate way. The Talmud, (Baba Metzia 85,a) regarding an episode of Rebbi's life, offers the following advice: "one who shows compassion for living things, attains compassion from Heaven"
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a.
Important Numbers
