Vegan reply: What about consuming eggs from rescued hens/ "pet hens"?

What about consuming eggs from rescued hens?

By consuming animal foods and owning animals one is perpetuating the property status of animals, which enables all the animal abuse today of the domesticated animals. As long as any individual, humans or nonhumans, is property under the law there will be no real protection.

“Anticruelty laws assume that animals are the property of humans, and it is in this context that the supposed balance of human and animal interests occurs. But as we saw, we cannot really balance the interests of property owners against their property because property cannot have interests that are protectable against the property owner. The humane treatment principle, as applied through animal welfare laws, does nothing more than require that the owners of animal property accord that level of care, and no more, that is necessary to the particular purpose.” Quote: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/faqs/#.Uf4r9G37bBA

You can learn more here: http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=rutgersnewarklwps

“Although these activities do not contribute directly to demand for animal products, they are deeply problematic as a symbolic matter. They reinforce the idea that animal products are things to consume; they reinforce the idea that animals are things, are human resources; they reinforce the social practice of consuming animals; they reinforce demand even if they don’t contribute directly to it.”

Quote from this article: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/road-kill-abandoned-eggs-and-dumpster-diving/

I also recommend this article:

http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/pets/#.Uf4-GG37bBA

All domestication of animals is inherently wrong: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/animal-rights-and-domesticated-nonhumans/

Thus, if you agree with the proposition that it is immoral to inflict animals any unnecessary suffering and death, please note that based on the above reasoning, you have to stop consuming all animal foods, stop using animals as a resource, and go vegan.

You can learn more about this principle in this article: http://articles.philly.com/2009-08-14/news/24986151_1_atlanta-falcons-quarterback-vick-illegal-dog-dog-fights

Backyard chickens,it is wrong to own, use and exploit chickens

 Andrea Gil Yes, we consider it wrong. If you, or your son is not vegan, which means *no* animal products, then you are contributing to animal exploitation. There is no third choice.

The fact that your chickens and rooster have a more pleasant existence than those on commercial farms doesn't change the fact that you're exploiting them and are supporting a wider system of exploitation. They didn't appear out of nowhere, did they? Someone profited from breeding them and you supported that person in breeding them by buying them.

That breeder is without a doubt engaging torture and killing in order to make a profit out of his or her property, regardless of whether the business is "free range" or conventional. This includes killing virtually all male chicks at birth by suffocation or grinding them up while fully conscious and killing chickens after they are spent for the purpose of laying eggs or breeding: and possibly worse than this, depending on the facility, such as debeaking with a hot knife, crowded and filthy conditions and forced moulting through starvation in order to extract another egg-laying cycle out of exhausted birds prior to slaughter. By buying chickens, this is what you are supporting.

The eggs belong to the chickens, not you. Chickens normally eat some of their own eggs because they require the nutrition contained in them.

The bottom line is that neither you nor your son needs to eat eggs for health; in fact you would be healthier without them. So there is no moral justification for owning chickens as property and stealing their eggs other than that you or your son like the taste, and that is no moral justification at all. It doesn't matter how well you think you're treating your chickens--it's not about treatment; it's about use. You have no right to own them and exploit them and they have a right not to be owned and used as resources. They have inherent value; their value does not consist in providing you with eggs. They value their lives and want to lead them without interference from humans.

By owning and using chickens you are reinforcing in your own mind and that of others, most especially your son, the speciesist prejudice that animals are things for us to use. You are doing your son no favours by teaching him this unethical way of thinking. The benefit to him in you going vegan and teaching him why it's necessary to be vegan would far outweigh his enjoyment in eating eggs, and more importantly, means that you cease exploiting animals. Why put indulging your son's wholly unnecessary pleasure ahead of teaching him how to do the right thing?

So please consider going vegan. It's the morally right thing to do.

Getting eggs from backyard chickens is not vegan. Here are some problems.

I think there are many problems with taking eggs from chickens of ones backyard. Here are some:

1.Perpetuates the view of chickens as "resources", instead of individuals as animals should be viewed. The problem in this non-vegan world is that animals are viewed upon as resources/things/property.

2.Many chicken eat their unfertilized eggs to regain the nutrition they lose by the excessive egg-laying that they have been bred to do.

3.Many people are domesticating and breeding chickens for this purpose. We should aim to end all domestication, since it is ethically wrong: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/animal-rights-and-domesticated-nonhumans/ , http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/what-are-the-roots-of-freedom-and-slavery/ (A wonderful article by Will Tuttle, who have written the wonderful book the World Peace Diet (www.worldpeacediet.org)). Until then we should of course adopt animals that need our help, e.g. from animal shelters.

4. We need vegans who can prove that you can be very healthy and thrive on a vegan diet, and inspire others to do the same decision.

5. Detrimental to our physical health, and we should practise non-violence to everyone, including ourselves [Good article about why violence always is bad: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/a-comment-on-violence/#.UWsFOMr3LS8 ]: http://www.adelicatebalance.com.au/