You’re not a true feminist if you eat eggs

[welshgendercrit]

inews.co.uk/news/environment/peta-no-eggs-for-feminists/

A new slant on feminism from PETA.

I get the impression a lot of men want feminism to essentially do the work of humanitarism so that they themselves don't have to do any of the work.

Oh so much this. That's why they keep harping on "equality" rather than the specific - the advancement of women's rights.

If I only eat eggs from hens that identify as roosters, is that OK for a feminist?

#transroostersareroosters

Have to say I've always felt really bad about not becoming fully vegan. I know how wrong the factory farming system is, and think it unacceptable that bovine mothers have their off-spring removed so that we can have their milk. The suffering involved in the dairy industry is immense.

@Halfling

I agree with you. i think people make jokes to divert attention away from the reality of the situation and their complicity in it. Animal rights have to be an extension of humanism, and therefore feminism.

And males are often killed at birth in both egg and milk production.

As a mother I can recognise maternal feeling and instinct in other creatures, and have empathy for that. I'm not sure why people think that so far fetched?Dog owners seem to have no issue, though, with anthropomorphism and empathy when it comes to their family pet - while negating the suffering of other creatures, especially those classified as food.

I agree it’s a humanitarian issue rather than a feminist one.

I wouldn’t trust ‘humanitarians’ any more than vegetarians.

Lots of vegetarians have pets though, especially cats. I eat meat though mainly free range and nearly always free range eggs.
I find the concept of people keeping animals for their own amusement and comfort selfish though. Animals should be in the wild with other animals.
It's sad wild cats in Scotland are becoming extinct whilst we have loads of domesticated ones that can't cope without people.

Would it be wrong to eat an Otherkin - who wants to be eaten?

Wine only dinner!

I’ve had dogs most of my life. My last one died a few years back and I’m probably too old to commit myself to another 15 years or so of caring for something and I work during the day anyway.

Dogs are domesticated. If we don’t keep them as pets then there won’t be any in the UK. Cats can look after themselves but dogs ere either pets or else they’re pests.

Cattle are also domesticated. We can’t turn back thousands of years of selective breading. When there are no dairy farms there will be no cows.

Agree which is a reason I use to excuse my meat eating. I like seeing sheep on the hills and cows. If we had endless arable fields our land would be dreary. I like venison and I love seeing wild deer on the hills. Many hills aren't suitable for crops if we got rid of lovely hill sheep like Herdwicks. Supporting one lot of animals created for our benefit (pets) whilst condemning others is illogical

When there are no dairy farms there will be no cows.

Why does there need to be cows?
Because we like them? Well I’m sure some people will keep them as pets or in educational settings.
There’s no justification for keeping a cruel industry going simply because we like the idea of those animals existing.
As demand dwindled we’d just breed less until supply disappeared.

When there are no dairy farms there will be no cows

That doesn't follow. I grew up on a small mixed livestock and arable farm. It wouldn't be economic now , and even then grandfather subsidised it from other income. Now it would only be viable as a hobby/lifestyle farm. We didn't keep dairy cows except one Jersey for milk and butter for our own use. Thinking on it my grandfather must have let them keep her calves longer than if they had been kept for commercial use. The cows themselves must have been kept longer than if they had only been kept for commercial purposes.

We also kept sheep and a few (obviously free range) pigs and ducks and hens. My brother still owns the land but now lets it for seasonal grazing and just keeps some for his horses.

It would be perfectly possible to use it for a very low intensive, self- supporting food production with animals being allowed to live out a more natural life.

I'm not fully vegetarian. I eat some fish and occasionally game in season.

If I'm being honest animal rights and animal welfare are something I feel much more passionately about than feminism. Women have the ability to fight for their rights ; animals don't.

But highland cattle are lovely. Much cuter than cats. I don't get the cat and dog thing

I find the concept of people keeping animals for their own amusement and comfort selfish though

You think keeping pets is more selfish than the meat industry??
Do you really think an average pet cat has a worse life than the average chicken?

If I only eat eggs from hens that identify as roosters, is that OK for a feminist?

I think you have round a real loophole there.

But highland cattle are lovely. Much cuter than cats.

So cute that you force then to get pregnant, steal their babies, repeat the process until you wear out their bodies, then kill them.

Gosh.

I said I only eat free range hens. Battery chickens have a miserable life but it seems illogical to say animals for meat is awful but animals for petting and company is fine. I wouldn't want to be eaten but I also wouldn't want to be someone's "pet"

Not eating battery eggs is good but I would urge you to look at what ‘free range’ means. Its better but it’s still no life.

I agree that there’s a conversation to be had around keeping pets but unfortunately there are many animals that can not survive without our help.
So for example one way would be to only keep rescue animals and to actively neuter them to stop there being more.
In an ideal world we would live alongside animals rather than keeping pets but unfortunately that’s not the world we’ve inherited and we have a responsibility to the animals that are here.

We only have cats - they make it quite clear that they are with us for as long as the situation is acceptable to them. If we fail in our duties as a slave, they will move on to find better ones

More seriously, where I live there is a significant problem with stray cats and dogs. The female cats are less visible, but the female dogs have litter after litter - you see them walking around with huge distended teats from repeat pregnancies and nursing. Eventually their bodies just give up - the lucky ones get hit by a car before that happens.

My point is that animals left to their own devices aren't necessarily better off then when humans look after them

I totally agree olanas
And I provide a really nice life for my cats, I don’t kill them once they stop being financially viable (or I would have killed them instantly the expensive little buggers). Or even once they stop providing me with companionship (I’m looking at you little stripey one, I know you only hang around for food).

I find the concept of people keeping animals for their own amusement and comfort selfish though. Animals should be in the wild with other animals.

Rescuing animals which already exist, is not at all comparable to breeding them for human consumption. No vegan would advocate for breeding, nor the mass culling of an already domesticated animal. Domestic cats cannot survive ‘in the wild’. There’s no way we can eradicate domestic animals now, so it is our duty to give them the best life we can. Vegans do advocate for an end to breeding.

PETA is widely mocked by vegans and I can’t think of one vegan I know who supports them. They’re more likely to be supported by ‘reducitarians’ and welfarists- they are welfarists after all. In over 40 years of these types of organisations, we haven’t seen a huge uptake in veganism or a decrease in animal production. They’re next to useless as a vegan organisation, their campaigns including this stupid one, are absolutely embarrassing. Their sexism stinks up the place.

Please don’t think PETA, or this type of campaign, is typical of ordinary vegans or that these people speak for everyday vegans, they do not represent me and my family of ex farming vegans. At all. It’s a nonsensical argument they’re making and most vegans would agree.

OlennasWimple

Depending on where you live, there are organisations that will come to: trap, neuter and release, in order to prevent the stray colony growing further and affecting the natural wildlife.

Also, we don’t have ‘pets’, we have companion animals. Who rule over us weak humans. We have taught our child not to pick them up when they’re comfortable, not to mishandle them, not to disrespect them basically. There’s no way they are treated as less than. We are doing the best we can in a situation we have not created, caring for these divine beings who we love as family. Not pets.