Eggs from 'pet' chicken

[Spencer]

Not a bad thing per se. Just not vegan. Ask the chickens.

I know it isn't vegan, but that doesn't make it "bad". If something does not contribute to the harm of other animals, then I don't think it is any worse or different than veganism.

Ask the chickens what?

If someone had several chickens that were rescued from a battery farm, and they were kept happily in a large garden... what would be bad about eating the eggs that they laid? What do you think should happen to them if they're not going to be eaten? Throw them away? Let them rot? I think wasting food would be a worse thing.

[horselesspaul]

I know it isn't vegan, but that doesn't make it "bad". If something does not contribute to the harm of other animals, then I don't think it is any worse or different than veganism.

I didn't say it was bad did I?

Ask the chickens what?

Whether you can take their eggs.

If someone had several chickens that were rescued from a battery farm, and they were kept happily in a large garden... what would be bad about eating the eggs that they laid? What do you think should happen to them if they're not going to be eaten? Throw them away? Let them rot? I think wasting food would be a worse thing.

It's not food, it's another being's period.

[Spencer]

I didn't say it was bad did I?

My question was what was bad about it, not whether it was vegan or not (I know that it isn't vegan).

Whether you can take their eggs.

Why? They can't answer.

Should people ask their dogs if it's ok to remove the shit from their garden? The dogs won't be able to answer them, and the shit would build up and cover the gardens if it isn't removed. Periods are a waste product too (one that happens to be a source of nutrients in some animals). If the chickens were able to talk, do you think they would want to keep their periods? Do any human females you know like to collect their periods?

It's not food, it's another being's period.

I've heard other vegans use this line before.. thinking that calling eggs "periods" is somehow a disgusting trump card that ends the discussion about whether it's ok or not to eat eggs in some circumstances. It's not that simple though. You could also try to make fruit sound disgusting by saying: "It's not food, it's another being's reproductive organs". Do you enjoy eating the ripened ovaries of other beings? (I think in the case of fruit, you probably do.)

Also, eggs are food (look up the definition of "food").

[harpy]

Hi Spencer, there are a few other threads about this if you search. I don't think eating eggs from rescued hens is particularly harmful either but, as you say, obviously it's not vegan. As has been suggested earlier in this thread you could avoid waste by giving the eggs to people who would otherwise buy commercial ones.

I think in one of those other threads it's also said that if you don't keep removing the eggs the hens stop producing so many, and that it's not natural for them to be laying all the time, but I might be wrong about that.

[Korn]

They will lay an egg per day automatically....

No birds to that 'automatically' - the chicken humans normally use for eggs wouldn't lay more than an egg per month if they wouldn't have been manipulated to produce more (eg. by having their newly laid eggs taken away from them).

Our ancestors survived by eating a wide range of foods... including eggs.

Some of them also ate also ate meat, fish, each other and raped and killed. Not a valid argument for doing the same, is it?

If something does not contribute to the harm of other animals, then I don't think it is any worse or different than veganism.

Keeping the egg production artificially high by taking their eggs causes pain, bleed and more. We don't need eggs, they don't want pain.

If someone had several chickens that were rescued from a battery farm, and they were kept happily in a large garden... what would be bad about eating the eggs that they laid?

See above... plus: by not letting others (non-vegans, egg eaters) have these eggs, you are part of the reason these other people buy eggs.

Let them rot? I think wasting food would be a worse thing.

Tons of edible food (plants!) is rotting in nature - daily. Does this really worry you, or are you only worried about the eggs?

I don't think I will in the future (since I never desire them and never really enjoyed them anyway)

That's a perspective that doesn't include the rescued/pet/free-range chicken's lack of wish to live with an increased egg production even if yo suddenly would desire their eggs or start to really enjoy eggs.

My question was what was bad about it, not whether it was vegan or not (I know that it isn't vegan).

Things which aren't vegan aren't vegan for a reason - not just because they aren't vegan.

Also, eggs are food (look up the definition of "food").

Since when did vegans start to consider dead animals food (it's listed under the definition of food as well)!



Anyway - I'm closing this thread (the topic has been discussed to death in other threads), and changing your account type to 'Not currently a vegan' since you're not a vegan yet. Let's know if you become a vegan, and we'll change it back!

Edit: I noticed that you also started the thread (from last year) I'm merging this thread this with, and have participated in the Vegans and Eggs-thread already... Please don't bring up topics you already have discussed (with your non-vegan perspectives) - otherwise, we'll have to use the spray on you!







Edit: let me add that for simplicity, there are two ways to use the word vegan.

Version one is closely linked to ethics. We don't consider animals like a group of living beings the exist to please our needs.

Version two exists for convenience, and is about food: if you would eat, say, the leg of an animal (or humans!) that already was killed by someone else - or a train, and nobody else was interested in it, so you wouldn't be interfering with others consumption or purchase of animal products by eating it, so eating that leg wouldn't cause any harm for anyone outside yourself, some vegans would maybe say that this action wasn't unethical - but in real life, there's no need for making a real distinction between these two ways of using the word 'vegan'. If we did, maybe one day you'd stumble upon eggs or meat or honey in a meal from a vegan restaurant, because according to the chef, nothing was unethical with eating that particular animal product, and we don't want that. When people want vegan food, they want food without animal products - period.

It's also a question of somthing...'undefined'. Most vegans - at least those who have been vegans for a while - wouldn't eat roadkill or meat from an animal that died a natural death for the same reasons most people won't eat human meat - including meat from people who died in a car crash or who died for 'natural' reasons/age.