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?

[QwertyLou]

... or give them items containing leather, silk or wool, or cosmetic products, or honey, or various other items which you wouldn’t realise are non-vegan.. but are

[LunaLunitaLunera]

That might make the purchaser feel better. It does not help chicken who is killed if born male, or culled at 72 weeks if female.

The ethical words are to purely there to to make us feel better.

While lovely to hear stories of happy hens in gardens, they are the lucky few, this is not reality for most. Over a billion farmed animals in Britain are killed each year in slaughterhouses.

This include over 10 million pigs, over 15 million sheep, 14 million turkeys, 15 million ducks and geese, 982 million broiler chickens, 50 million boiling fowl (including so-called 'spent' hens) and over 2.6 million cattle. But, where there's livestock,there's deadstock. I don't see how this will ever change.

There is no humane knife that slits their throat.

[SuchAToDo]

www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/follow-your-heart-vegan-egg-60010366?skuid=010366&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&gclsrc=aw.ds&&&gclid=CjwKCAiA99vhBRBnEiwAwpk-uAizKj2jMkKbsvqARxN77lvtuICFF-FrkQoPncv3sq682G3pZMiKBBoCHvsQAvD_BwE

Holland and Barrett sell vegan eggs, they are packaged in egg box, and are meant to look like eggs, taste like eggs, can be used for everything that eggs can be used for...but are 100% vegan and don't contain actual egg

[QwertyLou]

Final point! While nursing I pumped milk, and kept pumping after I weaned my son to donate to another mom. I had no problem doing this and wish my body had kept producing milk longer.

Having cared for chickens, seen them lay and collected their eggs - it is seriously not like separating a Bobby cow from his mom or something!

Rescue chickens (in my experience) don’t seem to lay very much but when (if) they do, what should you do? Let the eggs rot or bin them?

[LunaLunitaLunera]

I wouldn't use them. Are you worried about wasting eggs when the hen already has an expiry date on her life?

[thecatneuterer]

But they wouldn't be replaced if there was no demand for eggs. No they wouldn't, but 'vegans' eating only the occasional egg laid by a rescue hen is not fuelling that demand.

[LunaLunitaLunera]

But vegans wouldn't be a vegan if they ate an egg. Do you mean vegetarians?

[thecatneuterer]

Are you worried about wasting eggs when the hen already has an expiry date on her life? What are you on about? A rescue hen only has an expiry date on her life in the same way that you or me do, ie we will die eventually. Rescue hens are kept for the entirety of their natural life.

[thecatneuterer]

But vegans wouldn't be a vegan if they ate an egg. Do you mean vegetarians? That's a point that has already be well and truly covered in this thread - there is a difference between the strict definition and people following ethical vegan principles - that's been the entire point of this discussion.

[Butteredghost]

My family used to have hens, and yes, I think the eggs they laid were as close as possible to ethical and I certainly felt better about eating them compared to even free range normal eggs. But it doesn't remove the issue that anyone buying hens doesn't buy roosters so the male chicks have been killed.

[thecatneuterer]

But it doesn't remove the issue that anyone buying hens doesn't buy roosters so the male chicks have been killed. This is true, but rescue hens were there anyway and on the way to slaughter, so taking them on or not will make no difference to what happened before nor to what will happen in the future. It will make a difference to the lives of those hens only.

[QwertyLou]

Luna I’m not trying to be annoying, I’m on your side. But my parents’ rescue chickens live there for the rest of their lives (that’s the whole point of a rescue chicken).

Some never lay a single egg. Some do lay eggs - like twice a week.

When they do lay an egg, what do you suggest is done with it? Leave the egg in the coop so a snake will come and possibly kill a chicken too? Put the egg in the bin and send to landfill?

What do you do with your rescue chickens’ egg (assuming they lay any - some don’t of course)?

[StoppinBy]

I would not question in the slightest that a person who eats eggs from their own free ranged, well loved chickens is living a Vegan lifestyle. Chickens lay eggs, unless they are broody they drop and run. If you don't eat them then they are going to waste (although I know some people do feed them back to the chickens).

Each to their own but IMO eggs collected in that manner do no harm to the chicken they were taken from and the owner and the chicken have a mutually beneficial relationship.

[Butteredghost]

This is true, but rescue hens were there anyway and on the way to slaughter, so taking them on or not will make no difference to what happened before nor to what will happen in the future. It will make a difference to the lives of those hens only.

True. I suppose you could say that as a society if we all stop eating eggs, that would be best, therefore eating eggs from resuced hens isn't helping us move away from our taste for eggs although in itself it isn't unethical.

[artisanscotcheggs]

Hahahaha.

No.

[thecatneuterer]

A thought-provoking and reasoned contribution there artisanscotcheggs. You have obviously read the thread carefully and weighed up the arguments ...

[QwertyLou]

Thanks @StoppinBy yes that’s what I’m getting at! These 3 chickens (the population varies, 3 atm) have 5 acres to forage in.

If someone leaves a gate and door open they may well wander into the house! My DS (4) is an expert chicken catcher who gently carries them back outside.

If anyone has the space (and is in the right zoning area) I would encourage you to rescue some chickens who would otherwise be slaughtered. You can even put the eggs in the bin if you feel strongly about it

[QwertyLou]

@thecatneuterer

[QwertyLou]

(And just to reiterate in case someone hasn’t RTFT.. my parents buy chickens that are about to be killed and otherwise would be.. not spring chickens )

[Peacocking]

Sorry, catneuterer, I don't agree that anyone owning meat eating pets can consider themselves vegan. I have many cats and dogs, I don't eat much meat at all, but even if i ate none, I could never consider myself even close to vegetarian when I choose to pay the meat industry to kill sentient animals to feed my pets kept by my choice for my pleasure. I genuinely see it as complete hypocrisy on the part of vegans and vegetarians to pay for animals to be killed to sustain their chosen and optional hobby of pet keeping, and then claim ethical high ground on the basis that they themselves don't eat those dead animals. This isn't a personal attack on you at all, just a bugbear of mine that's developed over the past years!

Further up the thread someone mentioned the ethics of animal manure being used to produce vegetables. Genuinely, what stance does the vegan community take on this?

[derxa]

How do vegans feel about using manure for crops (to feed humans and animals)? People never answer this question because they never want to delve too deeply into how their plant food is produced.

[QwertyLou]

I assume that question is directed towards the purely urban. As my family’s chickens and horses produce enough poo for everyone’s vege gardens... in fact maybe that’s why they grow so well.

As for those who do

[QwertyLou]

• sorry , please disregard random last line

[speakout]

No.

Because although your motives towards a rescue chicken are kind, you are still supporting the factory farming of animals.

A bit like buying second hand fur.

[Mushroomsarehorrible]

No, of course eggs don’t form part of a vegan diet and those that insist that they are ‘vegans’ while happily consuming eggs are seriously cherry picking!

Anyway, this is what the Vegan Society have to say on the matter

“Keeping rescued egg-laying hens in your backyard is one way to help these animals, but taking their eggs for your own consumption is not. Some hens mourn the loss of their eggs, while many eat their own unfertilised eggs as a way to take back the nutrients contained within them. Even if this was not the case, what is important is that other animals are not ours to use in any way”

I’m not vegan by the way