Opinions on an egg situation

tom12349333 · Aug 15th, 2011, 10:57 PM

My friend has a few chickens who all lay eggs a few times a week. They are designer breeds of chicken and are bred sourly for the pet trade and are not deliberately and unnaturally bred to produced lots and lots of egg's or good quality meat like the poor chickens in the food industry. So therefore they are not bred to be then bred again to make more chickens (obviously they do other wise the breed wouldn't exist but that is not their main purpose, their main purpose is to be a pet chicken.) They will never have cockerels in their lives as they never need to do so because their purpose is to be a pet chicken and NOT a chicken in the food industry. This obviously out rules the whole mas production of them which is my main argument for being vegan but I think it also rules out the chickens being seen as food machines because effictvly their not. They are pet chickens who just happen to lay eggs every few days and are not forced to lay any more than they should naturally. They are free range completely and have full run of a garden with ample supply of chicken feed, worms, grass, bugs etc.

Would any of you eat their eggs? I was contemplating it because after all their is no mass production involved and their is no unnecessary breeding involved to produce an unnatural amount of egg laying or meat production. They are just "happy chickens" producing what is known as "happy eggs." It's not like if my friend had a pet cow and me saying "well I would drink its milk" because humans don't need milk after the weaning process so its totally unnatural regardless.

Thanks!

**Risker** · Aug 15th, 2011, 11:31 PM

No, and if you have a search you'll find this has been discussed before.

Eating the eggs would be exactly like seeing them as food machines, regardless of if that's what they are bred for. We don't need milk, we also don't need eggs.

**Korn** · Aug 15th, 2011, 11:35 PM

Hi Tom,

the idea of being a vegan (or even vegetarian) isn't based resistance aginst 'mass prodcution' only. As a matter of fact, the nation in the world where vegetarianism is strongest - India - is a country know for allowing cows go to wherever they want, freely, and even (by some) considering being 'holy'.

their is no unnecessary breeding involved to produce an unnatural amount of egg laying or meat production.

No, but as you say - there's breeding involved in 'producing' eggs for the pet trade (?).

If you have a look in at the article over at Wikipedia about veganism, it says that "Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarianseliminate them from their diet only". That actually makes no sense - since there aren't two kinds of vegans. This is probably written by one of the lobbyists who want to change veganism into something which either may be about diet only or something which is about a conscious, ethical choice to avoid harming and exploiting animals/living beings as much as possible.

So - 'not mass produced' and 'not produced for food' actually have no relevance in this context. Vegans don't eat wild fish which are caught in the ocean either, even if they aren't 'mass produced' - right?

It's not like if my friend had a pet cow and me saying "well I would drink its milk" because humans don't need milk after the weaning process so its totally unnatural regardless.

One difference between milk and eggs is that - as you say - we don't need milk after the weaning process... but: eggs are something humans don't need at all - not before, and not after a weaning process, because there isn't one...