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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Why don't vegans eat eggs?

108 replies

Floowho · 28/01/2016 19:07

This is a genuine question. As someone who has kept chickens in my garden as a hobby, during the late Spring, Summer and early Autumn my chickens lay an egg every day. If I didn't eat these eggs that were laid, what was I supposed to do with them? If I left them in a nest box, one of the chickens would become broody and sit on the eggs, then lose condition because of it. Perhaps I am posting on the wrong board, and I am not looking to goad anybody, your life choices are your life choices. One of these chickens is still alive 8 years later, so she must have a good life, though she no longer lays. I am totally against battery farming, and will pay however much more for eggs that are as free range as possible.

OP posts:
Adeleslostbeehive · 28/01/2016 20:22

Yes of course, as in the egg hasn't broken down to a period as we'd describe it.

SoThatHappened · 28/01/2016 20:22

One of my vegan friends described eggs as a chickens period. I cant say I look at them the same way.

Twinklestein · 28/01/2016 20:22

I'm not vegetarian, although I don't eat red meat, but I've never been able to do eggs or milk. I find them far more disgusting than meat.

I don't really get vegetarians who don't eat only organic/free range eggs, because battery conditions are basically torture.

limitedperiodonly · 28/01/2016 20:23

As someone who has lived next door to people keeping chickens in their back garden for a hobby, I have often wondered why they do that.

It was smelly and the animals attracted rats, cats and foxes. My neighbours didn't look after their chickens very well so sadly the rats, cats and foxes got them.

They also got egg-bound, which is a very distressing condition, not ameliorated by my neighbours asking me what I thought they should do.

If any did survive all that, they eventually stopped laying, and then my neighbours bleated about killing them.

On balance, I'd prefer to live next to vegans or people who shop at Iceland.

TaraCarter · 28/01/2016 20:27

But what about began who shop at Iceland, Limited? Eh? Eh? EH?

TaraCarter · 28/01/2016 20:28

*vegans. Beegans are another thread altogether.

pookamoo · 28/01/2016 20:28

adeleslostbeehive a period is not a broken down egg. In any species. Hmm

Veterinari · 28/01/2016 20:42

Floo You should have at least one nestbox per chicken - even battery cages have to provide adequate nest boxes

Maybe rethink your definition of good welfare if you have to stop your hens from normal broody behaviour and keep them laying so they don't become distressed at a lack of nestboxes...

limitedperiodonly · 28/01/2016 20:45

Vegans can easily shop at Iceland taracarter.

They do free range eggs too

mrsmugoo · 28/01/2016 20:47

This article tells you everything you need to know:

www.theveganwoman.com/is-it-ethical-to-eat-eggs-from-home-grown-chickens/

(Sorry I don't know how to post a hyperlink on the app)

mrsmugoo · 28/01/2016 20:47

Oh, automatically did one!

songbird · 28/01/2016 20:50

I work with two vegans and they wear wool and eat honey, but everything else is a no-no.

TaraCarter · 28/01/2016 20:53

(Yes, I know they can. It was a very feeble joke.)

limitedperiodonly · 28/01/2016 21:01

Sorry tara I knew you made a joke. I didn't joke back very well

lottiegarbanzo · 28/01/2016 21:01

Generally, they are looking at things at a larger scale than you are and making ethical decisions in response to the way the farming industry and large scale food supply operate.

On your scale, what became of your hens' brothers? Why no sons? More broadly, there wouldn't be ex-farm hens like yours, if the farms, or the particular methods of farming, did not exist. Someone who campaigns through their actions for the end of the egg industry is not faced (in a logical sense) with questions about what should happen to the by-products of that industry ('elderly' hens), that's an ethical question for egg farmers and consumers.

So it makes sense for people like you, who are inclined to eat eggs, to get those eggs in the way you do, giving longer life to commercially unviable old hens. It's the other egg-eaters it would make most sense to talk to, if you wished to expand this practice - and reduce commercial egg production slightly, as they wouldn't be buying so many farmed ones.

If one objects to animals being killed in order to supply one's food, then eggs and milk are out, as the male offspring are killed, as are the older females, when productivity declines. Killing is inherent in the dairy and egg industries. The killing can be viewed and rejected as unnecessary, by rejecting these foods as unnecessary to humans.

If one objects to the idea of taking from animals what is theirs, or produced to feed their offspring then, self-explanatory.

Bees - the 'stealing' argument and, some commercial producers apparently kill and re-stock each year, rather than pay to feed over winter.

It's wild bees - many different species - that are declining so worryingly. Commercial honey bees do face their own problems but are not the main concern re 'the decline of the bees'.

Sheep - stealing and, how do you distinguish wool derived from live sheep from the wool taken from slaughtered sheep? Some wool is a product of killing, some killing is a part of wool production - unless you let your sheep die of old age, which isn't generally the practice in commercial farming. So, object to killing animals? Might avoid new wool.

There may be welfare arguments with sheep, as well as other animals, too. So a desire not to support, with ones money, an industry that transports animals to slaughter in big lorries or treats them in certain ways e.g. Docking tails from sheep, all sorts of concerns with other animals.

Then there are environmental arguments about the inefficiency of supporting human nutrition through animal production, versus plant-based food. Complicated at the specific level, as some land is more suited to some types of production than others, some plants more nutritious to animals than people, some kinds of production more inefficient and damaging than others. But, at the large scale, pretty irrefutible.

So, killing, welfare, stealing and environmental concerns are the main issues I'm aware of. Different vegans will be more or less motivated by different issues, so may make slightly different choices.

NeedACleverNN · 28/01/2016 21:04

I do actually have a question for vegans....

In the uk it's not a problem as we don't really have any venomous snakes but if they were to go to Australia and be bit, would they accept the anti venom since technically this is an animal product?

lottiegarbanzo · 28/01/2016 21:05

Gosh that was long. Btw there's no battery farming in the UK now. Barn production is not wonderful though. For the happiest possible commercial hens, the organic standard has the highest welfare requirements (higher than the freedom foods one for instance) e.g. The hens might actually go outside.

Topseyt · 28/01/2016 21:15

I am not a vegan, though largely vegetarian these days.

Surely if bitten by a venomous snake your instinct is to survive. If the anti-venom is the only way to achieve that then so be it, vegan or not.

MaisyMooMoo · 28/01/2016 21:16

Can I recommend some websites and films that would answer your question OP and many others on the thread.

Compassion in World Farming - www.ciwf.org.uk/. This is a really informative website about farming methods and how you can help improve them.

Vegucated - as mentioned by a previous poster.

Cowspiricy - I haven't watched this one yet but heard lots of reviews so it's on my 'to watch' list

Earthlings - free to watch on YouTube or via the website.

Scone1nSixtySeconds · 28/01/2016 21:26

I have chickens too - they are a surprisingly entertaining pet.

But they are massively stubborn. I have 8 chickens and ten available nest boxes in two different hen houses. The little buggers have decided that only one nest box in each house is suitable for their laying requirements.

Therefore when they go broody (which the bantams do on a semi-regular basis) the others get terribly upset at having to queue for the one remaining adequate box.

While the other eight boxes with the exact same hay sit empty and neglected.

TaraCarter · 28/01/2016 21:27

Battery cages are banned, but they have been replaced by 'enriched cages'. So we still have a tier of caged eggs-> barn eggs -> 'free-range' (simply put as hens in overcrowded barn with open doors but the hens in the middle can't get to the doors)-> free range (in spirit as well as letter of definition).

www.bhwt.org.uk/egg-industry/enriched-cages/

TaraCarter · 28/01/2016 21:29

Ah well, Limited I'm here all night so we can always try again later! (Not really here all night. I have washing up and sleeping to do.)

thelifeofamber · 28/01/2016 21:31

I don't want to eat a chickens period.

Eggs are so bad for you.

Fluffy24 · 28/01/2016 21:33

If vegans eat wheat are they aware that most wheat, even organic, involves killing mice and rats that are attracted to the stored grain. Does the logic not follow that their consumption of grain directly lead to killing mammals? In fact in theory everything a vegan eats has had an impact on other animals, do the small furry mammals or insects that we don't see but who are killed or made homeless by the plough not also deserve the same care?

I absolutely see the point of veganism, but where would you stop - surely you rapidly get to the point where you acknowledge that humans have a huge impact on other animals even when not eating them or drinking their milk etc.

It makes a position of not wanting to eat a genuinely high welfare back yard egg a bit of an irrelevance surely?

Ditsy4 · 28/01/2016 21:36

I have some vegan friends. I have rescued battery hens just got them recently and they love scratting about the garden,fully feathered now! One of my friends will have the occasional egg as she is pleased to see these rescued hens enjoying life but she doesn't normally eat eggs. She says not all free range hens have happy lives re the vegan magazines/ leaflets. They don't use any animal products - shoes, make up, food.
Headline can be eradicated with conditioner and combing I would imagine that's what they do but yes an interesting question.

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