To ask if eggs can ever be vegan

[GloryforGloves]

Before I discuss, let me share the definition of veganism from the Vegan Society website:

Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.

So, I understand fully that the egg industry is rubbish. Hens are confined, even if the box says free range; male chicks born as potential breeders are culled; old chickens are slaughtered. As a meat eater who buys into this, I get it’s shit. So I was wondering about alternatives.

Based on the definition above, I think it could be considered vegan to eat eggs from a rescue chicken who was keep in a happy, free range environment - a large back garden with a suitable setup. You are not breeding the animal for a specific purpose and I wouldn’t consider that exploitation as the chicken would lay regardless - in fact you are saving an animal that would have otherwise be slaughtered.
Instead you provide the chicken a comfortable, safe place to live and you enjoy it’s waste product.

I know some (most?) vegans say no animal product at all - but I think there has to be a reason for that stance - if it’s for ethics, then is this unethical?

What are your thoughts? Could rescued, well loved chicken eggs be considered vegan?

Yes, I have read the thread and my opinion is someone who eats eggs is not vegan. Can someone who eats oysters call themselves vegetarian? Or if they scrape some road kill up and eat it?

It's all no sensense anyway. Who cares what other people eat?

speakout - yes but it's the practicalities of consumption that necesitate a label. As I said above it would be a bit pointless to describe yourself as vegetarian rather than vegan when you go out for dinner or need to be catered for in some way, if the only non vegan thing you would ever eat where some eggs from rescue hens that some particular person gives to you. That's not going to help you to get the right rood on the plate in front of you is it? I can't see any point to giving yourself a label if it isn't as a guide to what you will buy in shops and what others might serve you with.

The fact that you might also consider eating the eggs of a particular rescue hen, or even road kill, doesn't change the sort of food that you look for to buy or to be served with. And that food would be labelled 'vegan'.

If you pull up crops (as opposed to, say, eating already-fallen fruit) - or buy them from providers who have done it on your behalf - you are directly responsible for ending the life of a living organism and preferring your own needs and desires above its own

This^

I spent my PhD studying stress responses in bacteria, how they reacted to substances that were killing them by changing their cell wall components etc in a effort to survive. My fellow students were studying similar responses in plants. No living thing is happy to die, they all try not to.

While well intentioned, being vegan, if adopted by the majority, would result the virtual extinction of a large number of species

Also this^

If you don't want to eat meat, then don't. Of you don't want to use any animal product for any reason, then don't.

But don't try and make it about ethics and pretend it means you don't kill anything because it really doesn't. All living things are consumed by other living things when they die.

We should insist that animals are treated well and die without suffering, but we cannot avoid destroying and consuming our fellow living earthlings.

but we cannot avoid destroying and consuming our fellow living earthlings. maybe we can't, but we can certainly give it a damn good go. And of course it's about ethics. What else can it be about?

And as I've said I don't mind if species become extinct as they will no longer be bred to live short and unpleasant lives. I care about the suffering of the individual animals, not whether species continue or not.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_domesticated_animals
Here is a long list of domesticated animals. We have the power of life or death over all of them. If I was a vegan then I would outlaw the use of all of them since they don't choose their own way of life.

Unfortunately vegans don't have the power to outlaw anything. All they can do is live their own lives to cause as little harm as they can manage.

@derxa oops think you might have been being ironic with your comment re me, as usual I missed it was just trying to explain why my own family doesn’t need to buy manure or commercially grown veges

@thecatneuterer thank you for fighting the good fight (genuinely meant - not ironic!)

Qwerty not at all. i admire people who can grow vegetables well. Honestly.

Oh, thank you, not from UK and I sometimes get it totally wrong!

There is a definition of vegan at the start. It doesn't include eating eggs. just like vegetarians don't eat fish.people have different reasons for their choices, it doesn't matter why. Do what you want but don't subvert the definition. You can be mostly vegan or plant based. Pescetarian. Do people think there is some kudos? Beginning to remind me of trans debate.
You can request a vegan meal, or be vegetarian only on wednesday, it doesn't make you vegan or vegetarian. Yes the world would be different if everyone was vegan, but that is unlikely, many species only exist because of intense farming and cannot give birth without help, would not survive wild.
I eat fr meat and eggs but try not to have dairy, I have been vegan for health reasons. I'm a non smoker but love the smell of a cigar...................

Missingstreetlife

I agree about the definition- it's bonkers to suggest vegans can eat eggs or meat.