Suffering of backyard chickens laying eggs

"The ancestor of the modern laying hen would lay at most a dozen eggs, once per year. Over the course of many years of selective breeding, the domesticated laying hen has been turned into a creature who will lay up to 300 eggs a year during her peak laying period. This high number has only been achieved through cruel genetic and behavioral manipulations. Normally, hens are instinctively driven to lay a number of eggs (totaling about 12) called a "clutch". After this number is achieved, the hen will stop laying eggs in anticipation of the hatchlings. This behavior holds true whether the eggs are fertilized or not. Egg farmers take advantage of this fact by removing any eggs that the hens lay. This forces them to continue to try to form their clutch of eggs in vain desperation. Sadly, they will be driven to madness as they attempt to form their clutch because their eggs are constantly stolen. Needless to say, this puts a tremendous psychological and physical strain on these birds. An animal that might otherwise live the better part of a decade is all but used up within a couple of years.

A hen in a backyard setting, given proper nesting materials will also attempt to form a clutch. If you chose to steal the eggs rather than leave them be, she will desperately attempt to form her clutch until she stops laying eggs or simply drops dead. By doing so, you are perpetuating the same cruel fate that she endured on the farm. The calcium needed to form just one egg can bind up ten percent of the calcium from her bones. Extended egg laying without proper mineral replenishment will lead to soft or fractured bones. When left alone, hens will actually eat their unfertilized eggs. This replenishes them with much needed minerals lost during the egg formation process." - Andy Williams

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

Vegan reply to counter argument: But…Isn’t eating animal products, meat, milk, eggs, etc., natural?

 If our body was designed for meat consumption, humans wouldn't get these problems: http://vimeo.com/15787322 , http://www.adelicatebalance.com.au/
Meat in large quantities is not dangerous for an omnivore.

I don't understand this "human nature"/natural-argument.

It is also discussed here:
Question 5: Isn’t human use of animals a “tradition,” or “natural,” and therefore morally justified?Answer: Every form of discrimination in the history of humankind has been defended as “traditional.” Sexism is routinely justified on the ground that it is traditional for women to be subservient to men: “A woman’s place is in the home.” Human slavery has been a tradition in most cultures at some times. The fact that some behavior can be described as traditional has nothing to do with whether the behavior is or is not morally acceptable.

In addition to relying on tradition, some characterize our use of animals as “natural” and then declare it to be morally acceptable. Again, to describe something as natural does not in itself say anything about the morality of the practice. In the first place, just about every form of discrimination ever practiced has been described as natural as well as traditional. The two notions are often used interchangeably. We have justified human slavery as representing a natural hierarchy of slave owners and slaves. We have justified sexism as representing the natural superiority of men over women. Moreover, it is a bit strange to describe our modern commodification of animals as natural in any sense of the word. We have created completely unnatural environments and agricultural procedures in order to maximize profits. We do bizarre experiments in which we transplant genes and organs from animals into humans and vice versa. We are now cloning animals. None of this can be described as natural. Labels such as “natural” and “traditional” are just that: labels. They are not reasons. If people defend the imposition of pain and suffering on an animal based on what is natural or traditional, it usually means that they cannot otherwise justify their conduct.
Quote: www.abolitionistapproach.com/faqs/

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There is no doubt that we can live a very healhty life on a vegan diet:
“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.” — Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association)

Thus, eating animal foods is inflicting unnecessary harm and death upon animals, and this we all agree is morally wrong.

---------------------More arguments:

Quote from www.eatlikeyoucarebook.com/ :

This “But” is like saying that God wants us to eat animals but we don’t need to bother with God.  Something else that is big and important—nature— wants us to eat animals. If we don’t eat animals,we are acting against nature. We are behaving in

an unnatural way. That’s powerful stuff—even if you’re an atheist. In fact, “But Natural” is like “But God” without God. It seeks to establish necessity, but without God. But why do we think that nature intends, whatever that means, that we eat animals? The usual response is to say that we are physically adapted to eat meat and other animal products.

 

Putting aside that many people are lactose intolerant, and that many physicians are pointing out that animal products are detrimental to human health, the most we can say is that we can eat animal products; there is nothing about our bodies that suggests that our bodies are designed to do so. Humans compare physically much more to herbivores than to carnivores. Carnivores have well-developed claws. We don’t have claws. We also lack the sharp front teeth carnivorous animals need. Although we still have canine teeth, they are not sharp and cannot be used in the way carnivorous animals use their sharp canine teeth. We have flat molar teeth, as seen in herbivores, such as sheep, that we use for grinding. Carnivores have a short intestinal tract so that they can quickly expel decaying meat. Herbivores have a much longer intestinal tract as do humans. Herbivores and humans have weak stomach acid relative to carnivores who have strong hydrochloric acid in their stomachs to digest meat. Herbivorous animals have well-developed salivary glands for pre-digesting fruits and grains and have alkaline saliva that is needed to predigest grains, as do humans. Carnivorous animals do not have similar salivary glands and have acid saliva.

(..) And, as we stated earlier, the evidence is quite clear that we don’t need animal products to be optimally healthy. You would think that if we were intended to eat animal products, those of us who don’t (and haven’t for decades) would suffer deleterious health effects. But we don’t. We do just fine. We have to make sure we get vitamin B-12, which humans do not manufacture, or at least not in reliable quantities. But all humans have to get B-12 from somewhere. Carnivores get it from meat; vegans get it from nutritional yeast, other fortified food, or supplements. But all B-12 comes from microorganisms. (..)

 

So while there is considerable evidence that animal foods are detrimental to human health, we don’t want to get into a battle of studies here to convince you that it’s healthier not to eat animal products. We do, however, want to make clear that the very best a consumer of animal products can say is that her diet is no better than that of someone who eats a balanced diet of non-animal foods.

 

In sum, there is no evidence that nature requires that we eat animal products. Indeed, the extant evidence is to the contrary." End of quote.

 
More Resources:
Humans have no known anatomical, physiological, or genetic adaptations to meat consumption.
We have many adaptations to plant consumption.
Vitamin C is found in plants. We can’t make it ourselves such as carnivores.
Quote:
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Debunking-the-Paleo-Diet-Christ;search%3Adebunking%20paleo
True human diet. Humans evolved on a starch-based diet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0PF5R0ywp4
"Dartmouth Associate Professor of Anthropology, Nathaniel Dominy PhD, talks about his research and why he believes the true human diet is one based in Starch. "

Some more links here: http://bloganders.blogspot.no/2013/04/vegan-answer-to-humans-are-at-top-of.html

Eating eggs hurts and kills more animals compared to eating meat

Some just asked by PM where I got the egg figures from. Here's the article: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/08/11/want-to-kill-fewer-animals-give-up-eggs-not-meat/ Based on the data she uses, her analysis seems right.

According to some animal advocates, it's Meatless Monday. But there is no morally coherent distinction between meat and other animal foods. And if you consume eggs, you are responsible for more animal deaths than if you eat beef or pork. So if you care about animals, go vegan today. And every day.

Quote from: https://www.facebook.com/abolitionistapproach

Stop hurting and exploiting animals. Go vegan!

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As we’ve said above, there is no morally coherent distinction between meat and other animal products. Dairy and eggs also involve suffering and death. In fact, if you stop eating beef and get the same number of calories from eggs, you may actually be responsible for more animal suffering and death given that laying hens are usually killed after one or two laying cycles and all the male chicks born to laying hens are killed immediately. In any event, the meat, dairy , and egg industries are inextricably intertwined. They all necessarily involve suffering; they all necessarily involve death. To stop eating meat but to continue to eat dairy is morally arbitrary and similar to a decision to stop eating meat from spotted cows but to continue to eat meat from brown cows. It makes no sense.

Consumption of any animal products, absent your being stranded on a desert island or adrift on a lifeboat, with no plant foods available, is completely inconsistent with the conventional wisdom we claim to accept. As we discussed above, the good first step is not consuming “happy” animal products or making an arbitrary distinction between meat and other animal products and not eating the former but continuing to eat the latter. The good first step, if you don’t feel able to go vegan immediately, is to do it in stages, starting with breakfast and continuing on.
Francione, Gary; Charlton, Anna (2013-06-24). Eat Like You Care: An Examination of the Morality of Eating Animals (Kindle Locations 1517-1523). Exempla Press. Kindle Edition. 

Vegan healty diet, no protein deficiency

Don’t worry about protein:

“The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that men and women obtain 5% of their calories as protein.  This would mean 38 grams of protein for a man burning 3000 calories a day and 29 grams for a woman using 2300 calories a day.  This quantity of protein is impossible to avoid when daily calorie needs are met by unrefined starches and vegetables. For example, rice alone would provide 71 grams of highly usable protein and white potatoes would provide 64 grams of protein.” John A. McDougall, MD

Milk products is bad for your health: http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_hot_calcium.html
So is eggs: http://drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/march/050300pueastereggs.htm

A vegan diet is good for your health: “It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.”

Quote: http://www.eatright.org/About/Content.aspx?id=8357

Some more information about nutrition you can find on this website: http://www.drmcdougall.com/medical_nutrition.html
and these lectures:
http://www.youtube.com/user/drmcdougallmd
Getting all nutrition as a vegan is very easy.

You will notice that you will have a good appetite and can eat lots of food. As long as you eat a healthy vegan diet without oils [1] and refined foods, this is nothing to worry about.

PETA endorses Burger King's "Veggie" burger, which contains milk, eggs and animal exploitation

Hello Jill,
“Thank you for your post and for the links that you shared. I would be happy to share some links with you, too! Best wishes,”
Thanks! Best wishes to you also!

I understand that you sincerely believe in PETA and their methods.

I don’t have the time to comment everything you write at the moment, but I would like to comment your statement:

“Because of PETA, even Burger King now has a "BK Veggie" burger!.”
It contains eggs and milk.
PETA promotes Burger King and their animal exploitation-burger under their section ‘Eating Vegan at Fast Food Chain Restaurants ‘ and they are celebrating and promoting Burger King for what certainly is animal exploitation.

So PETA’s supporters will believe that they are helping the animals by [lacto-ovo]-“vegetarianism”, which is a label that makes people feel good about exploiting animals, skipping the meat, but still exploiting animals by consuming milk and eggs. Calling milk and eggs and label it vegetarian or veggie is certainly normalizing the animal exploitation - labelling it as being the same as "veggies" [vegetables].

Some other problems with PETA:
PETA gives awards to various vendors of “happy” meat and animal products;
PETA, along with other animal groups, has enthusiastically endorsed the Whole Foods “Animal Compassionate” program/label;
PETA gave an award in 2004 to Temple Grandin, the designer of “happy” slaughter houses and what Grandin calls the “stairway to heaven” system of slaughter;
PETA announces and then calls off boycotts of institutional animal users such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King and praises those companies for their supposed concern for animal welfare;
PETA praises McDonald’s as “actually ‘leading the way’ in reforming the practices of fast-food suppliers, in the treatment and the killing of its beef and poultry.”
To say that this does not constitute support for “happy” or “humane” exploitation is simply not correct.
[Quote and references: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/a-response-to-petas-position-on-happy-or-humane-exploitation/#.UaTzk5xc18E ]

How do vegans look at road kill, abandoned eggs and dumpster diving?

I am frequently asked whether it is “vegan” to eat “road kill,” the abandoned eggs of hens who are kept as companions, or animal products that you find in a dumpster.

The short answer: no.

The explanation: 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.

But what if no one sees you do these things? In that case, you are not engaging in any activity that symbolizes anything to anyone because no one observes it or knows about it. You are not reinforcing demand.

But you observe; you know about it. You are participating in the act of consuming animals; a ritual that has no meaning apart from the speciesist celebration that animals are things to exploit.

Being vegan means that you reject the notion that animals are things for us to consume. They are not commodities; they are not resources.

They are not food any more than a human arm that you find in the dumpster.

We would never think of eating a human. Humans are moral persons. We don’t eat persons. But nonhumans are persons as well. They have moral value. Their bodies and the products made from them are not things we eat, even if we find them dead along the road way or in a dumpster, or even if they abandon their eggs.

*****

If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.

Quote: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/road-kill-abandoned-eggs-and-dumpster-diving/#.UaTpBZxc18E

People eat meat, milk and eggs because of cultural indoctrination

For me it took almost 28 years to wake up from the cultural indoctrination that it is okay to use and treat animals as “commodities” and to take their life for animal products and an experience of "taste", and as for most people, what other people wrote helped me to wake up.

Cats, dogs, cows, insects, humans. Our society wants to make a difference and then justify our use, abuse and killing for taste, pleasure or convenience, based on this difference.
However, we are all one, we are all consciousness, we all love, we all feel, we are. If we sow suffering, we reap suffering. We all have a purpose, to serve, to be a light, not to hurt or use (all animal products and the treatment of animals as commodities are hurting animals). I highly recommend World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle, www.worldpeacediet.org

We should stop hurting our family. We should treat everyone with love, compassion and nonviolence, i.e. we should go vegan . We should treat others as we ourselves want to be treated. We shouldn’t kill and hurt animals for an experience of “taste”, since we don’t want to be hurt and killed for “taste”. More information at www.vegankit.com

We have no nutritional need at all for animal products: http://www.adelicatebalance.com.au/

Eating eggs inflicts suffering and death on chickens and hens, and is bad for human health

All eggs and animal products are bad for human health. They are "bad eggs" for humans, buy very good eggs for the chickens.:
http://www.adelicatebalance.com.au/ ; http://drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/march/050300pueastereggs.htm
They are also bad for the animals, including us humans, the environment, etc, causes injustice, wars, poverty and starvation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvZpF1R6GUo
Standard industry practise with hens in the egg industry is to grind male chicks alive (since they can't make any profit of them), to take the eggs that hens often eats to regrain their nutrition lost by laying a very unnatural amount of eggs, and to kill the hens when they around 72 weeks of age, at the time the industry doesn't find them enough productive.
Most people recognize that it is unnecessary to cause animals unnecessary suffering, yet sadly their daily choices contribute to the unnecessary suffering and death of animals: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/what-michael-vick-taught-us/#.UXg7ysrSlI1
If you believe animals have a moral value, and you are against inflicting suffering on them, then go vegan. Learn more in the above resources and www.vegankit.com

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/

Love animals? Please don't steal their purpose and life by eating eggs.

Love animals?

Please don't steal their purpose by eating eggs.

There is as much cruelty in the egg industry, as there is in the meat-industry, as there is in any animal industry. For each animal product we are buying, and for each non-vegan choice we make, we are paying for animal cruelty. I became a vegan this autumn to stop participating in stealing the purpose of animals, stop taking their freedom, life and family from the animals.
Learn more here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wu5RrqMTUtM ;
http://bloganders.blogspot.no/2013/03/story-of-hens-chickens-their-tragic.html
and in World Peace diet by Will Tuttle (www.worldpeacediet.org )
And here: http://www.facebook.com/abolitionistapproach

Do you know what the animals are going through that produce the milk and the eggs (they are suffering, they are being killed and their purpose is taken away from them)?

My post to a friend:
Hope you are doing well! How is everything going in Taiwan?

Do you know what the animals are going through that produce the milk and the eggs (they are suffering, they are being killed and their purpose is taken away from them)?
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLgGnP0pWzM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Rg3Yfdbs24I
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu5RrqMTUtM [and other videos at: www.vegankit.com ]

Please tell me your thoughts.
Have a wonderful day!!

Compassionate Easter, without causing suffering and death by eatings eggs and milk

Please let this be an Easter treating everyone with love and compassion, regardless of species! A dog, a horse, a pig, a cow, a chicken - they all have their lives, purpose and right to live and not to become used and abused in order for anyone to get "meat", animal products, etc.

 If you research the egg-industry, you will see their is so much suffering and death involved in the egg industry. Male-chickens are killed at birth (ground up alive), because that the egg-industry can make no profit on them. Female hens are used all life, their eggs (that belong to them, and that they can eat to replenish their nutrition) are taken away from them, and when the farmer can’t make enough profit on the hen, the hen is killed. The hens and chickens have their own purpose – it is not to be used and not to become someone’s food, or to be someone’s property. We should treat others, as we ourselves want to be treated. When it comes to being conscious, to feeling pain, to show love, empathy, to love one’s family, to everything essential – there is no difference between a hen, a dog, a cat, a human.

 "If you celebrate Easter, think about what you are celebrating: the idea that love conquers everything, even death. So don’t celebrate the triumph of love over death by participating in death. That makes no sense whatsoever. Celebrate love every day: go vegan.”

 Gary L. Francione [ www.facebook.com/abolitionistapproach ]

 If we care about animals, and regard them as having a moral value: Only stopping using them and stealing their lives and products, is respecting them, their life and purpose.
 I highly recommend this lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLgGnP0pWzM

Story of hens, chickens -their tragic fate and slavery just because that humans by eggs and chicken-"meat"

Maria Amore skrev:
"The tens of thousands of chickens crammed into one egg production shed have nowhere to move and no way to nest, establish social order, or in any way express their natural intelligence or purpose. The artificial lighting schedule that keeps them in almost continuous darkness, and the feed and drugs are all designed with only one goal: to cut costs and to maximize the number of eggs that drop from the hens’ uteruses and roll down the slanted wire cage bottoms to be whisked away on the conveyor belt. On modern chicken operations, this is over 250 eggs per year, more than two and a half times the number hens would normally lay under natural conditions. In nature, a hen is particular about her nest and often chooses the right place to lay her precious egg in partnership with a rooster. When she actually lays the egg in her carefully prepared nest, it is obviously for the hen a moment full of pride and satisfaction. Contrast this with the following description of egg laying for a caged chicken:

The frightened battery hen starts to panic as she vainly searches for privacy and a suitable nesting place in the crowded but bare wire cage; then she appears to become oblivious to her surroundings, struggling against the cage as though she is trying to escape…
Take a moment to imagine yourself as a layer chicken; your home is a crowded cage with a wire floor that causes your feet to hurt and become deformed; there’s no room to stretch your legs or flap your wings and they become weak from lack of exercise; but at the same time you can never be still because there is always one of your miserable cell mates who needs to move about; one of the other chickens is always picking on you and you cannot get away – except by letting others sit on top of you; the air is filled with dust and flying feathers that stick to the side of the cage splattered with chicken shit from the inmates in the cage upstairs; it is hard to breathe – there is the choking stench of ammonia in the air from the piles of manure under the cages and you don’t feel well at all; the flies are unbearable despite the insecticide sprayed in the air and laced in your food – to kill the fly larvae before they mature; the food – never green and fresh – never varies and tastes always of the chemical additives and drugs needed to keep you alive; eventually, despite your wretchedness and anguish, and the tormented din of thousands of birds shrieking their pain together, you lay an egg and you watch it roll out of sight; but the joy of making a nest, of giving birth, of clucking to your chicks is absent – laying the egg is an empty, frustrating, and exhausting ritual."

World Peace Diet, Dr. Will Tuttle pages 127-8.

Please, I beg you, let's acknowledge that this domination and slavery is not right. Let's choose compassion and choose from among the many delicious recipes that don't include eggs! There is absolutely no reason for us to consume eggs in our diet. In fact, we have no right to do this to other precious Beings!

Do not kid yourselves: organic, free-range, grain-fed, humane are all myths created by a greedy industry to appease your conscience. There is nothing humane about the egg and chicken industries.

Go vegan - end the suffering.

Please share this note so that everyone knows the truth about what is going on behind "closed doors".

More about eggs:
The eggs are still not ours, they belong to the chickens.
The chickens need the eggs to replenish their vitamins and minerals.

Good article: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/what-are-the-roots-of-freedom-and-slavery/
An interesting perspective: http://gentleworld.org/whats-wrong-with-backyard-eggs/
Cholestorol in eggs and other animal products kills humans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTf0z_zVs0

Yes, they eat their unfertilized eggs. And being so abused by the breeding-industry - laying a very unnatural amount of eggs - they surely need all the nutrients they can get (and lose in the egg laying process).
[An example: http://freefromharm.org/animal-rescue-stories/what-do-you-do-with-the-eggs-if-you-dont-eat-them/ ]

Another problem with taking their eggs and taking other products from animals is that it is treating animals as "property" - a status which results to lots of suffering and death of animals in our society:
"Francione argues that the current legal standard of animal welfare does not and cannot establish rights for animals. As long as they are viewed as property, animals will be subject to suffering for the social and economic benefit of human beings."
http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/books/animals-property-and-the-law/

Many important articles about hens and eggs here: http://freefromharm.org/animal-products-and-culture/all-about-eggs-free-from-harms-collection/
http://freefromharm.org/farm-animal-welfare/my-hens-prolapse-is-a-good-reason-not-to-eat-eggs/