to eat eggs from caged hens?

[ChickenWashingDilemma]

Trying to distract myself, thought AIBU was as good a place as any to hide from real tasks of the day! Warning: Very middle class, having-the-money-to-be-able-to-choose problem.

I am lucky in that I can afford free range eggs. I don't eat much meat as I would prefer to eat higher welfare less often than cheap meat more often. But in the supermarket I managed to pick up eggs from caged hens. I never buy these, don't know how I did it, but noticed when I got home.

I talked to OH about them and he said he would not eat them. But I cannot bring myself to throw them away as to me that seems worse than using them. At least the produce is being used. I would never buy them again through choice but what to do?

I have already eaten 2 so it is a bit of a moot point but what would you have done? I just want to get rid of them as quickly a possible without throwing them away. (I have since been told that I might have been able to return them but had not considered that you can return foodstuffs just because you pick up the wrong thing)

So if the choice was between eat them or chuck them, AIBU to eat them?

You could have tried to return them. If that didn't work, then I'd say just eat them, the damage was done when you paid money for them.

Just read labels more carefully in the future :) (OR get yourself some garden hens!)

I would eat them. Wasted food is a shame.

Also in response to EdMc "Perhaps if the eggs we produced were more expensive and harder to get hold of, people would use fewer and not just buy hundreds of poorly produced ones because they are so cheap?"

That's a really good point, but on the other side I've just bought 18 eggs, from caged hens, £1.85. Money is tight at the moment and from these eggs I will get a few good breakfasts of eggs and soldiers for DS, some omelettes for tea, a cake etc. Eggs are such a staple in this house as they are cheap and so versatile. Other than lentils I can't think of any food stuff I can get so many different nutritious dishes out of for a similar price.

Well I have a tin of baked beans with pork sausages sitting in cupboard that I bought accidentally (am vegetarian). They will either sit there till I can think of someone to give them to, or will be thrown out. No plans to eat them to avoid them going to waste.

Rev - please remember the cheap meals you are having come at the expense of an animal's welfare.

I am deeply upset when I see people pick up the caged eggs at the super market :(

Make cakes with the eggs and freeze them.

I dont see an issue. You accidently bought some eggs that were from caged hens. So eat them. Theres no point wasting food that is already there because you have a moral issue with it. I also have a moral issue with food wastage. You know that next time you will buy free range. End of.

I wouldn't actually eat meat that I'd bought accidentally (though it wouldn't go to waste, I'd give it to the dogs :)) but that's a slightly more extreme example than the 'wrong' kind of eggs.

I don't think there's any need for preaching and getting upset at what someone else chooses to eat though. We all live at the expense of some creature's welfare, even vegans, that's just the way the world works - it's not possible to feed everyone without causing some harm to some living thing. We all make an individual decision about what is and isn't ethically acceptable (some for example wouldn't eat farmed eggs at all) balanced with our financial situation and our family's needs.

Free range is not always all you might imagine, either.

good post epiphany

I buy whatever eggs are the cheapest on the shelf thats often caged eggs unless free range are on offer, i know free range are better for the animals but unfortunatly when it comes to feeding my family cost must come first.

Make cakes and give them away - that's better than saying to someone 'I can't bear to eat these eggs from caged hens, but thought you might like them.....'.

Do you ever buy ready-made cake, mayonnaise, custard, quiche or noodles? If you do, then you're probably already eating eggs from caged hens anyway. Sorry.

I would eat them if I'd bought them, I don't see why you wouldn't. You've already supported battery farming by paying for them, throwing them away isn't going to undo that. They'll just taste a little bit insipid, the suffering won't leech through the eggs and infect your life.

Eat them. The deliberate insult of not using them adds to the accidental injury of buying them.

"I also have a moral issue with food wastage." hear hear lynniep

Paiviaso, it may be wrong but I'm just trying to ensure a good diet for my family. We don't have meat every day as it's expensive. If I could afford better I would. But until then I've just had to make a choice and I'll have to live with it until then.

Ephiny agreed.

We buy as fair as we can afford. When our situation changes so will our shopping habits.

I'd make cake or something with them, because I think cheap eggs taste, and look, pretty crap compared to free range ones.

But I agree that free range isn't all that, having seen a poultry farm that prides itself on top of the range free range and organic chicken, turkey and eggs.

eat them
talking of ex battery hens, have u ever seen one?
that would make sure you never pick them up again.

we had some, have only ever had ex-bats

they recover but are in a shocking state to begin with - even after rehabilitation when feathers are starting to grow again

RIP lovely chickens, bastard fox

TBH, if you buy eggs from the supermarket, the welfare of free range hens is on a par with those in a caged system.
A small percentage of FR chickens will go outside and enjoy the great outdoors, and a few farms adapt their sheds to ensure most chickens can get out (although ime, these are generally producing organic eggs).
The life of a FR hen is often worse than that of a caged one, because of the bullying a pecking. At least in a cage, there is a limit to how many chickens can be housed in one area.

If you really want to buy cruelty free eggs, find a local chicken keeper and buy eggs from them.

Do people really think that the food industry uses free range eggs in their products? By all means buy them if you wish but next time you are having a supermarket cake or a restaurant meal you will prob. be eating eggs from caged hens so any ethical dilemmas are over right there.

Similar happened to me last week - I get my free range eggs from the milkman, he left a note saying there were no FR eggs and left me caged instead. - to be honest he'd be damned if he did and damned if he left nothing.

I just used them as normal, far more insulting to the chicken to throw them out.

to be fair - I could not tell the difference - though it will not convince me to have them all the time.

Eat them, it would be very wasteful to throw them away.

Nelly - ex free range hens look just as poor and bedraggled as ex-batts.

Farmed egg laying chickens are all replaced at around 72 weeks old (after a year of intensive egg laying). This is because they stop laying eggs and go through a moult.

I have genuinely free range chickens who are looking as poor at the moment as an ex-batt does, because they are moulting. They don't look like that because they are poorly treated.
It is in a farmers best interest to keep his birds healthy. Unhealthy birds spread disease and dont lay eggs. Unfortunately for chickens, they thrive in many conditions, so they have been exploited.

Please don't believe that the plight of caged chickens is worse than intensive free range birds, it's not. It's different, but no better or worse for the majority of birds.

I would definitely eat them. Throwing food away is wrong. Not only the poor chickens are caged, they will be caged for nothing if you chuck the eggs. Just eat them and be careful in the future.

I think Waitrose and M&S use free range in their own brand products.