Lifnei Iver and Animals
Question
In Halacha, Jews are forbidden from having animals do prohibited melachot on Shabbat. My question is, is there any issur of Lifnei iver with animals, or no, since animals don’t have the same free will humans do? As an example, putting an electronic color on a dog, which the dog could activate on Shabbat, before Shabbat would be setting the animal up to cause melacha on Shabbat, so would it be Lifnei iver?
Answers
There is no issue of “Lifnei Iver” for an animal. However, this does not mean that it is permissible to have an animal do things for you on Shabbos that are forbidden to do.
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