Q.
“Want vegan eggs? Sure, no problem.” – Backyard chicken farmer in a comment on “Big Food” by Martha Rosenberg, OpEdNews,
Nov. 15, 2015
A. There is no such thing as a “vegan egg.” Eggs are the product of an animal’s body comprising an animal’s biological resources
and activity to produce. Egg-laying in a hen, as in all birds, is an extremely complex process that the passive term “lay” does not comprehend.
Presumably the promotional term “vegan eggs” refers to feeding hens a diet that is free of animal byproducts as well as preventing the hens
from foraging for bugs outdoors. But a hen’s diet, regardless, does not make her egg “vegan.”
Many if not most backyard chicken-keepers and businesses purchase their birds from industrial hatcheries, so claims that backyard hens and their eggs are
not from factory farms are usually untrue. Female chicks are often painfully debeaked at the hatchery before being shipped to buyers, and the baby roosters
are destroyed or used as packing material. All chickens bred for eggs and meat have been genetically manipulated for “food” traits at the
expense of their wellbeing. The distinction between “backyard” and “factory farm” leaves out these and many other details. – United Poultry Concerns OpEdNews Reply, Nov. 15, 2015
What happens to the 250 million male chicks born to hens in the U.S. egg industry each year?
Along with defective and slow-hatching female chicks, they are trashed as soon as they hatch. Upon breaking out of their shells, instead of being sheltered
by a mother hen’s wings, the newborns are ground up alive, electrocuted, or thrown into trashcans where they slowly suffocate on top of one another, peeping to death while a human foot stomps them down to make more room for more chicks. Because the male chicken of the egg industry
cannot lay eggs, and has not been genetically altered for profitable meat production, he is of no use to the egg industry. Destruction of unwanted male
chicks by egg producers is a worldwide practice.
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