Lately I've been wondering if one of my favorite things to eat, eggs, is a contradiction to my vegetarianism. I always rationalize my decision to eat eggs by saying that no animal that was ever possibly conscious of itself was killed so that I could eat. However, standard industry practices for egg harvesting cause extreme suffering to the hens that lay the eggs.
The hens who lay these eggs are confined to very small spaces with absolutely no room to move or stretch their wings. Their beaks are singed off and this causes them immediate and prolonged pain. Many of these hens suffer from osteoporosis as a result of constantly laying eggs, which requires large amounts of calcium. Between laying cycles the hens are starved from ten to fourteen days in order to induce another laying cycle. These hens only survive two laying cycles until they are transported to slaughter houses and are often killed while still fully conscious. There are no laws that say these chickens must be unconscious before they are killed.
Clearly, conventional egg harvesting leads to extreme suffering on the part of the hens laying the eggs. This prompts me to say that vegetarians who do not consume animals based on concerns for animal suffering should not eat eggs that have been harvested in large farms. Thankfully, eggs are one of the easiest things to find on small farms where the chickens are treated fairly. I think that if one makes the effort to get eggs from a farm where they know the chickens are cared for and are allowed to live relatively happy lives then it is ethically sound for a vegetarian to consume those eggs.
My question is do you think that being a vegetarian is enough to combat unethical treatment of animals or is being a vegan the only way to go?
No comments:
Post a Comment