Eggs and Veganism

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TheLastOstrich
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Eggs and Veganism

Post by TheLastOstrich »

As a vegan I don't eat any eggs, and I haven't ever since turning vegan. However, my father (non-vegan) has recently proposed that we get some ex-battery hens who no longer lay eggs due to stress to keep in our garden (we have a huge garden so inhumane enclosure is almost an impossibility). He asked me: if the hens started laying eggs again, would I be okay eating them?

Whilst at first I was extremely reluctant, the more I think about it, the more acceptable it seems: they would basically be pets who happen to lay eggs, just as dogs happen to keep you fit, so it hardly seems like exploitation, and they would have a good quality of life, especially compared to what they would have been through.

As I've been vegan for quite some time and feel uneasy eating any potential eggs, I have decided to take it to nere, to see what other vegans think. Please let me know your thoughts - I may not have thought of something and don't want to realise that long after starting to eat the eggs.
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: Eggs and Veganism

Post by brimstoneSalad »

TheLastOstrich wrote:As a vegan I don't eat any eggs, and I haven't ever since turning vegan. However, my father (non-vegan) has recently proposed that we get some ex-battery hens who no longer lay eggs due to stress to keep in our garden (we have a huge garden so inhumane enclosure is almost an impossibility). He asked me: if the hens started laying eggs again, would I be okay eating them?
My recommendation would be to sell the extra eggs to neighbors (beyond what your father eats), which will displace factory farmed eggs in their diets if they eat those.
Keep the money in a jar to help cover the expenses of keeping the rescued hens.
TheLastOstrich wrote:Whilst at first I was extremely reluctant, the more I think about it, the more acceptable it seems: they would basically be pets who happen to lay eggs, just as dogs happen to keep you fit, so it hardly seems like exploitation, and they would have a good quality of life, especially compared to what they would have been through.
I wouldn't call it harm to the hens (unless they are broody, in which case taking the eggs may distress them), but eggs are not good for you.
If they laid cigarettes, would you feel you should smoke them?

The better option is to give them to meat eaters to help displace the eggs they may have eaten from factory farmed hens.
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garrethdsouza
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Re: Eggs and Veganism

Post by garrethdsouza »

Yup. Also If you have exhausted both of those possibilities and have eggs spare, you can cook em and added to the hens feed. That would also save money on feed, edible food isn't being wasted and you won't need to eat it.
“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.”

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brimstoneSalad
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Re: Eggs and Veganism

Post by brimstoneSalad »

garrethdsouza wrote:Yup. Also If you have exhausted both of those possibilities and have eggs spare, you can cook em and added to the hens feed. That would also save money on feed, edible food isn't being wasted and you won't need to eat it.
My concern then would be that it's probably not healthy for the hen either. It's tough to figure out what to do with unhealthy "food", since it almost seems unethical to inflict it upon any other being (unless you're just replacing other unhealthy food that would have been eaten anyway, like replacing factory farmed eggs or meat).

It might be safe to cook them and give them to homeless people, who otherwise eat junk food anyway, but then you may be freeing up more money to buy alcohol or drugs... hard to say what consequences that would have.
TheLastOstrich
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Re: Eggs and Veganism

Post by TheLastOstrich »

brimstoneSalad wrote: My concern then would be that it's probably not healthy for the hen either. It's tough to figure out what to do with unhealthy "food", since it almost seems unethical to inflict it upon any other being (unless you're just replacing other unhealthy food that would have been eaten anyway, like replacing factory farmed eggs or meat).

It might be safe to cook them and give them to homeless people, who otherwise eat junk food anyway, but then you may be freeing up more money to buy alcohol or drugs... hard to say what consequences that would have.
My main concern is not what to do with an excess of eggs, but whether eating them would be morally justified, since my non-vegan family will undoubtedly eat many of them.
Your idea of feeding them to the homeless is a good one: in my experience homeless people will spend every precious bit of money they get on food since they get so hungry, and I will certainly consider doing that, should there be an excess.
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