What If I Had My Own Hens And Ate Her Eggs?
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Coleen Patrick-Goudreau answers this question in her most recent podcast, which I highly recommend.
Go check it out here >>
Here’s my answer to “What if I had my own hens and ate her eggs?” The answer comes in two parts, one for meat-eaters and one for vegans:
For meat-eaters: Don’t worry about the rare hypothetical scenarios. Just stop eating eggs. They’re not necessary for your health. Just go vegan.
“But…” I can hear you say you’re “trying to eat local, organic, and sustainable” so you’re considering buying some hens to produce eggs for you. You’re “not planning on killing them for their meat,” you just want their eggs.
No, it’s not OK to buy hens and eat their eggs. Even if you care deeply about the hens and even if you treat them well, it’s still not OK. Keeping hens so they can produce eggs for you is wrong. They aren’t your little egg-laying slaves. Just ditch the eggs and go vegan.
“But…” You think a practical solution to the environmental crisis is to encourage people to eat less or no meat and to produce as much food on their own as possible. You think we should all have gardens and those who want to should have hens (or cows or pigs…). You want to return to a time when everyone had their own farm.
Gardens are great, but keeping hens isn’t. There are numerous problems with encouraging people to produce their own animal products. For example, the average person cannot be trusted to treat animals well. They aren’t equipped with the proper knowledge. Just consider how many small animals purchased from pet stores die within a few months after purchase. The average person won’t even be bothered to learn that their guinea pig needs vitamin C. Do they know, or more importantly, do they care that goldfish can live 40 years and that a “goldfish bowl” is the most inappropriate habitat for them?
A small town near my hometown is filled with feral hens and roosters. These are not wild animals, these are feral animals. They were once domesticated animals and have the physical traits of animals bred for human use, that is, they are not physically adapted for life in the wild. These animals have been abandoned by people who kept them for back-yard egg production. The people moved and left their animals. Just like so many cats and dogs on the streets or in shelters, these chickens deserve better.
For vegans: if you’re vegan then bravo! Congrats on making the leap and ditching animal products! Well done!
If you’re asking about eating hens’ eggs then perhaps you’re considering adopting rescued hens. Or perhaps you’ve already adopted rescued hens and you’re wondering if it’s ethical to eat their eggs. In that case, I wouldn’t do it, but I don’t think there’s a terrible ethical problem with it. So long as the hens are rescued hens and so long as the eggs are not fertilized, it’s not a big deal. Basically, I agree with Colleen.
However, I think it could be problematic because:
- It will be seen by nonvegans as hypocritical
- Eggs are nasty
OK, that last one is just my personal opinion. I’ve always hated eggs, even when I ate them. I could only stomach them as scrambled or baked. There’s just something, well, disgusting, about eating what amounts to a chicken’s period.
So, it’s up to you. There aren’t simple, easy answers for complex problems. Do your best. Live as nonviolently as you can. Be as vegan as you can be.
For me there is a third reason not to eat eggs, even with the caveats above: they belong to the chicken, not to us. Eating the eggs is theft.
But I do think your reason #1 is important, not merely because it will be seen as hypocritical, but because it undermines one significant element of veganism: standing in for the absent referent. Saying, “I eat eggs,” even without a strictly ethical reason not to, is equivalent to saying, “Animal products are ours to use.” It’s much like freegan meat consumption, or using found animal detrius such as shells or feathers in art. Sure, it’s not directly causing harm, but it’s perpetuating a value system incompatible with respecting the rights of animals. It directly contributes to the ideology that does cause harm to other animals. It’s more than mere hypocrisy, even though that might be all the average omnivore consciously notices.
~ Recent blog post: Social Justice Quiz 2008 at http://ryanmcreynolds.blogspot.com ~
Ryan, agreed, it’s theft.
(However, you might have to believe the concept of individual property is a good one in order to consider it theft.)
I think we made basically the same point. I said “Keeping hens so they can produce eggs for you is wrong. They aren’t your little egg-laying slaves,” and you said “it’s perpetuating a value system incompatible with respecting the rights of animals.”
I don’t know if this thread is even active anymore… but
I am seriously considering veganism. I am also considering having 3-4 hens at some point. They would eat my kitchen scraps and provide me with excellent fertilizer. Also, they lay eggs naturally, about 1 every 25 hours for an adult hen. They are not fertilized. What am I suppose to do, throw they away? That doesn’t seem right. I wouldn’t be keeping them so I could abuse them and force them full of growth hormones to make them produce more eggs. They would just naturally be laying eggs. It is stupid to let them rot and throw them out. Especially since there are so many people in the world that are starving! I would never eat the hens, and if they don’t produce many eggs or if some stop producing because of age, it won’t be a problem. I still won’t sell them or eat them. They would be a companion animal. How is this exploiting? If someone wanted to eat what was the equivalent of my period, I’d say knock yourself out. It just comes out anyway, no one is forcing mine out of me. Please give me some sort of explanation for this supposed exploitation I would be doing if I ate my hens eggs.
Heidi – if you purchase hens, they most likely come from a hatchery where the males are killed:
Eccentric Vegan-
I don’t know how this is relevant. I would be saving the lives of a few chickens. I wouldn’t be buying from people who supply Perdue or Tyson. There are plenty of local breeders where I live. I don’t support the consumption of animal flesh, but I wouldn’t be eating them. Unfortunately, I can’t make decisions for others who choose to eat the meat. That’s pretty bold of you to assume I would be buying from a slaughterhouse. Most places who breed chickens end up using them for meat eventually. I would not. I’d like to think I was saving the lives of the chickens I would have. As far as the attached video, I’m not going to watch it because I know it’s full of brutality and I’m already aware of what it is and what it looks like. Does anyone have a valid reponse to my initial question? Thanks.
Heidi – the video is a hatchery, not a slaughterhouse.
The answers to your question are in the podcast referenced at the very top of this page and the beginning of the article. Please go listen to it:
http://mediacloud.libsyn.com/compassionatecooks/drawing_the_line.mp3
Hi Heidi… The thing about “buying” chicks from a “breeder” is that the males are discarded. There is a built in cruelty to “sexing” chickens for the purpose of “eggs”.
I think it’s an entirely different situation if you have adopted/rescued “spent hens”… You are really saving lives then — And yes, they still will lay eggs – although not up to “industry” standards.
Now, I care for a small flock of rescued “factory hens” – They were scheduled to be gassed with 850,000 of their sisters… They had stopped being “productive”. But since they still do lay eggs sporadically, you’re right that it would be a mess to let them rot… But chickens love to eat their own eggs! And a certain amount are good for them to have… That seems only fair to me, if you are asking them to “share” with you…
I personally wouldn’t judge someone ethically “wrong” if they chose to eat the eggs their “pet” hens discard… Providing of course that all respectful considerations are given to them first. And what conditions they came to be in one’s care to begin with…(IMHO).
But be forewarned… If you ever do care for chickens; And if they come down with any one of the internal parasites they are prone to, (icky, nasty worms in their feces), you will be turned off from eggs forever!
Good luck!
.-= Bea Elliott´s last blog ..Dairy & Drugs – Antibiotic Residue in Cow Meat & "Beef" =-.