Vegans and eggs

[tails4wagging]

Dilemma - should my vegan friend eat rescued chickens eggs? She is a committed vegan, but she says, if battery chickens are rescued and continues to lay, she thinks it is ok to eat the eggs. Her rationale is that by paying the rescuer for the eggs, she is helping the upkeep of the chickens. No sure myself, how this fits in with a vegan philosophy?. Before I went vegan, I would only eat eggs if I could see the chickens and that they were ok. Has this come up before and how do folks think about it?

[eve]

vegans don't eat eggs, but surely your vegan committed friend can make her own decision?

[tails4wagging]

Yes, agree eve, but should she call herself a committed vegan?. She is also a committed animal rights activist and does wonderful work for animals. But as she eats the eggs, surely she is open to riddicule by the 'corpse eaters'?.

[wuggy]

This arose before in 'Not a Vegan Yet' section of the forum.
I would say from an animal cruelty point of view, yes, from a general ethical stance no - and anyway who wants to eat icky periods once you are a commited vegan?

[tails4wagging]

Yes, wuggy, I have seen a few after they were rescued, some had no feathers and looked ready for the oven, poor souls!. Now they are scrathing around the grass eating anything looking remotely interesting to eat. My friend I spoke of rescued 12 on evening and as an emergency had to put them in 5 rabbit hutches overnight and awoke next morning to find 9 eggs. they went to good homes the next day.

[wuggy]

I know, it doesn't take long for them to heal, thankfully.
Your friend sounds great but she can't call herself a vegan (commited or otherwise) if she eats eggs, can she? Why does she feel the need for eggs in her life, or does she just feel they would be wasted otherwise?

[wuggy]

I have said before here that I won't choose to keep 'pets' any more, but when we (finally) move I may give a home to some rescued hens. Hens are what first got me involved in the Animal Rights scene. I have kept them before, and they are not atall stupid or unfeeling, as the egg industry makes people beleive.

[harpy]

Hen Heaven near Brighton sell eggs from their rescued hens to pay for their care, and I can't see much objection to eating those and can see good reasons for supporting them. I wouldn't really care if it made me technically not a vegan (as I suppose it would) since I eat a vegan diet to try to minimise animal suffering rather than to belong to a vegan club or get anyone else's approval. Eating these eggs doesn't contribute to suffering in any way that I can see.

Having said that, I personally don't much fancy eggs or anything with eggs in it so perhaps I'd buy some and give them to someone who would otherwise be buying supermarket eggs. Or I'd just give them the money and not take the eggs (which is what I did when I saw them at an event a few weeks back - not that easy to transport eggs from Brighton to London on a hot summer's day :D ).

[gertvegan]

" I'm not really a vegan " HERE (http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=426&page=1&pp=10) is the similar thread that wuggy mentionded.

[Geoff]

I was looking after some rescued hens and ate one egg but having been vegan for so long, didn't like the taste. I solved the problem by boiling them and putting them in with the dog's food.
A friend and I bought some vegetarian samosas some years ago and were driving home when my friend told me that they had meat in them. She threw hers in the river but I ate mine, deciding that it would be a further insult to the animal to throw it away but it made me feel ill. (I should have brought it home for the dogs!)

[tails4wagging]

I know Linda from Hen Heaven quite well, I usually head her way and buy some eggs for this friend and other friends to help Linda out. I do wish she could find more help, she is overwhelmed with hens/turkeys and only her old dad to help.

If anyone here in the UK and lives in Sussex, please offer her some assistance.

[ConsciousCuisine]

Vegans don't ever eat Animal Products. If Nuclear War Happened and all that was left to eat was tinned Tuna and I ate it I would not be a Vegan in practice. It really *is* black and white. Vegans don't ever, under any circumstances, eat animal products. If people who call themselves "Vegan" eat animal products, they are not "Vegan", they are "people who are lying to themselves"....

[cowpie]

I totally agree, CC. Farm Sanctuary feeds their chicken eggs to the other animals rather than waste them. The staff at FS don't eat the eggs themselves, because they're vegan. Plain and simple....vegans don't eat animal products....

[wuggy]

Yes, Cowpie, that is what we used to do at Freshfields - feed the eggs to the dogs. Under those circumstances (rescued hens laying eggs which would otherwise rot away), I don't see what's wrong with giving them to the dogs to make use of.
I think if a vegan ate them it could be the start of the 'slippery slope' thing - if you eat eggs, why not try a few other similar products.
If you eat eggs, you are not a vegan.
I don't see veganism as an exclusive club, I see it as a lifestyle definition - you're either vegan or not. :)

[mysh]

If Nuclear War Happened and all that was left to eat was tinned Tuna and I ate it I would not be a Vegan in practice.

If all that was left to eat was tinned Tuna, veganism would likely be of no consequence anymore. And the supply of tuna would run out pretty quickly.

Me, I'd eat Republicans - at least this way I'd still me sticking with my rule of not eating anything with a brain. Of course I'd have to make sure their parents were Republicans, too, otherwise they'd be an "animal product". ;)

[harpy]

I don't see veganism as an exclusive club, I see it as a lifestyle definition - you're either vegan or not.

I suppose my lifestyle definition is "cruelty-free (as far as poss.)" - that is the primary objective and veganism is a logical consequence, to me.

From that point of view my main worry is that an all-or-nothing approach can be counterproductive. Have a go at someone for eating these eggs and (depending on their own lifestyle definition) you risk making them think "oh well, I might as well just give up the whole idea of veganism then". Having a large number of slightly-lax vegans (or rather people who follow a predominantly-vegan diet) will reduce cruelty more than having a small number of very strict ones.

I do like the idea of eating Republicans but I can't think of any Conservatives here that look the least bit palatable.

[wuggy]

Yes, I do see your point, Harpy, and I wasn't 'having a go' at anyone, its just that I feel, why call yourself a vegan if you're actually not one, that's all (not you specifically, obviously!). :o

[harpy]

No, I know you weren't having a go at anyone, Wuggy - I was more thinking about the original question. I just meant that giving this particular egg-eater a bad time doesn't seem likely to achieve anything, although I agree with the point that someone who eats any sort of eggs doesn't meet the definition of a vegan.

Also meant to say to tails4wagging that the Hen Heaven people I met had a couple of cute rescued turkeys with them.

[veganfever]

Me, I'd eat Republicans - at least this way I'd still me sticking with my rule of not eating anything with a brain. Of course I'd have to make sure their parents were Republicans, too, otherwise they'd be an "animal product". ;)
:D Me too. I would eat them raw. :D

[ConsciousCuisine]

:confused: :confused: :confused: If Animals who are scared, angry, fed sub-standard food and live stressed-out small existances secrete stress hormones into their flesh (see all of the Republican parallels???) and we *know* that it is toxic to take all of that into our bodies, how much *worse* would eating a bitter, angry, anal-retentive, nasty Republican be for our health :confused: :confused: :confused:

[mysh]

Come on CC, a little junk food every now and then won't hurt you! ;)
(OK, so I'm just jealous because I have neither your resolve nor your skillz to eat right all the time.)

[Gorilla]

I know Linda from Hen Heaven quite well, I usually head her way and buy some eggs for this friend and other friends to help Linda out. I do wish she could find more help, she is overwhelmed with hens/turkeys and only her old dad to help.

If anyone here in the UK and lives in Sussex, please offer her some assistance.

i live in Brighton and have seen people from Hen Heaven at small local events, there was an Animal Aid fayre in Worthing a few weeks ago and they had a stall with a live chicken with them. i got to feed the chicken and it was so cute ;)

i'm not sure if it's them, but there are some eggs that are sold in health food shops around here that are labelled as 'vegan friendly'. i think this is a bit of false advertising because as many people have said, vegans don't eat eggs. however i totally support their policy of rescuing hens from slaughter and battery egg production. i wouldn't personally eat the eggs as i never really liked eggs before and see no need for them now, but someone who hasn't (yet) seen the need to go vegan would be helping animals a lot more buying these than the 'free-range' eggs in most shops.

i may have mentioned this before, but i stayed at a veggie B&B in Devon called Fern Tor earlier in the year and they have many rescued animals including chickens. all their food is vegan unless you want to have their eggs with your breakfast. the owners of the place are both vegan and i thought it was a great idea for veggies who have yet to cross over to veganism.

[tails4wagging]

My friend who eats the eggs, is so animal rights,she is known to the law and has crossed them on many a occasion in the name of liberation, so I cannot get around her eating eggs!!. But she has a clear concience about eating them from rescued hens, but agrees with our argument.
Me I had a couple of eggs a few months ago from resued hens, cause I fancied egg and chips, and promptly felt sick, I think it was the thought of eating a chickens period that did it!!!. Never again.
Hen Heaven has many hens and turkeys, and Linda gets some abusive from her neighbours, typical and I guess they buy their eggs from a supermarket thinking their concience is clear if they buy free range!!

[uww27225]

I feel this topic is trying to address two issues at once. First, there's the issue of whether eating eggs from rescued hens is vegan. I think we all agree that it clearly isn't. However, the second question addresses whether or not eating these eggs corresponds with the ethics behind veganism. Here is where I feel the issue could be open to debate. If you feel that non-interference is an important aspect to veganism, then you may be feel eating any eggs is unethical. However, if you feel that no-harm/reducing animal suffering is the unerlying ethics of veganism, then you may feel that while the consumption of these eggs is not vegan, it isn't unethical either. I, personally, identify with the latter stance.

[ConsciousCuisine]

I feel it is unethical for someone calling themselves a "Vegan" to engage in non-vegan activities (ie. eating eggs).