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As a (sometimes inconsistent) vegetarian who doesn't actively eat eggs (haven't bought them in a year), I'd actually argue that eggs (and diary) are actually le
by toomanybeersies 8y ago
As a (sometimes inconsistent) vegetarian who doesn't actively eat eggs (haven't bought them in a year), I'd actually argue that eggs (and diary) are actually less ethical than meat, with (pastured) beef and lamb being the most ethical.
It seems less cruel for an animal to spend its life standing in a field than for it to be stuck laying eggs its whole life or being milked twice a day for as long as its useful, only to be led to the slaughterhouse. In fact, commercial chickens are the most cruel industry, chickens are so cheap they are treated like a bulk good, rather than like a living animal. Even free range chickens live a shit life.
We talk about treating our servers like cattle, rather than pets. But cattle are actually treated very well, there's a lot of value in a single beast and it's worth looking after them when they're sick. Chickens are so cheap (they cost, what, $7 at the supermarket?) that if they're sick or injured, it's cheaper just to turn them into fertiliser.
Of course, that's just the commercial industry. Home raised laying hens tend to live a comfortable life.
- jrace 8y ago>(beef) and lamb being the most ethical. How is slaughtering an 8week old animal (young lamb) ethical?
- svrtknst 8y agoWell, how is slaughtering chickens ethical? For every egg-laying chicken out there, a male chicken is slaughtered, and both egg-laying and dairy milking harm the animals (for instance, compare avg. life span of a dairy cow with their natural life-span). There's also the factor of number of animals killed - One lamb feeds a lot more people than one chicken, yet both are living animals capable of pain and suffering. That's not to say that either is particularly ethical, but (as a vegan), I don't think you can easily say that eating eggs is intrinsically more ethical than eating meat.
- jrace 8y agoNot all eggs come from industrial slaughter farms. At least where I live farm fresh eggs from chickens who live cage free are readily available. But the point of my comment us not that Lambs are less ethical than chickens...but killing and eating a few week old animal is hardly "more" ethical.
- benj111 8y agoCould you not make the case that ending their (presumably) miserable life earlier is the ethical thing to do? Is that not better than letting them suffer for a year?
- toomanybeersies 8y agoIt's not so much the act of killing that is manifestly unethical, but rather the life it leads before death. Obviously the debate has a lot to do with your belief in consciousness and ego. Does a lamb have an ego and is it conscious of its own mortality (in the abstract sense)? Does the sheep suffer existential angst? Are these requirements for the industrialised raising and slaughter of animals for food to be unethical?
- msandford 8y agoThere are folks who have figured out how to do good farming with chickens that mimic natural processes in the same way that folks use mob grazing of grass-fed beef mimicking natural processes as well. In fact what they do is have the chickens follow several days behind the cows so as to get the most bug larvae from the manure. If you can find eggs from birds that are used this way I think that's a fairly ethical thing. Yes the birds are being used but they're also living pretty close to how they would otherwise. I first heard of this from Joel Salatin, how exactly I stumbled onto that I have no idea. He's an interesting character for sure, but I can't help but have respect for the way he thinks about farming and what he calls honoring the animals.