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No meat but eggs?

patbbpatbb Veteran
edited May 2010 in Buddhism Today
I cannot think of anything wrong morally about eating eggs from free run hens?

The hens cannot survive in the wild anymore.

So they need a shelter and food.

We give them and they are free to run around and have fun, fairly good life.

In return, they give eggs that are not fertilized.


So you can eat eggs and not kill anything.


Thoughts?

Comments

  • edited May 2010
    For myself the key word here is "free range". I do eat eggs but I only purchase free range organic eggs.
  • patbbpatbb Veteran
    edited May 2010
    For myself the key word here is "free range". I do eat eggs but I only purchase free range organic eggs.
    yes, "free range" is what i was referring to.
  • edited May 2010
    Yep, that's why I eat eggs. I get free range + organic whenever I buy them, but just be careful with some of the labeling. "free range" doesn't always mean that they get to run free, but it could mean that they get just a tad of outdoors each day before being confined again. The best thing to do is simply read about the provider and get a good feel for what they support and how the animals are treated :D
  • edited May 2010
    With Metta,
    Wow:)!! this site has hell lot of details on present study on vegetarianism and eggs as well.
    http://www.jainstudy.org/Vegetarianism.htm

    Whether the egg is fertile or infertile, life is essentially there; and it has all the symptoms of life, such as respiration, brain, feeding ability, etc. There are 15,000 porous-breathing holes on the shell, the cover of the egg. The egg begins to rot at a temperature of less than 8^ Celsius, 00^ Fahrenheit. When it begins this process, its rotting manifests itself through evaporation of the water content. The egg becomes infected by germs and thus becomes diseased. The progress of the rotting soon
    reaches the shell of the egg.

    Eggs contain cholesterol in large quantities. The yellow bulk of the egg is the major source of cholesterol. Cholesterol narrows down the arteries and may eventually lead to a heart attack or to paralysis. Eating eggs may also lead to rheumatism and gout that can cause serious and painful joints in old age.

    All the above facts lead to prove that eggs are not vegetarian and so let us re-think about the issue of eggs and realise that a balanced vegetarian diet contains an abundance of health protecting nutrients and fibres without eggs.
  • edited May 2010
    I eat eggs and don't see it as harming life.

    My view is that an unfertilised egg will not grow life anyway and I thought that eggs contained the good cholesterol, need to research that.
  • upekkaupekka Veteran
    edited May 2010
    why do not you visit to the 'Food - Ahara' thread?
    meat and eggs are kabalinka-ahara

    so

    we can discuss this in detail
  • edited May 2010
    Commercial egg production, whether "free-range" or not inevitably involves inflicting suffering and death on living creatures. "Free-range" chickens are often subject to severe overcrowding, and don't necessarily have a great deal more space than caged chickens. In addition, they are kept in groups of many thousands, which means their natural social structures can't operate. In the wild, chickens live in groups of no more than 30, in which a "pecking order" is established. Herded together in huge sheds with thousands of other birds, they cannot establish a pecking order and consequently attack and peck at each other. The farmers' solution is not to give them a more natural environment, but to cut the ends off their beaks - which is excruciatingly painful.

    Hens will naturally lay about 6-12 eggs a year, all in one go. Hens used for commercial egg production are bred and manipulated to produce far more eggs than is natural (the standard is one a day), which puts a huge strain on their bodies. Once their egg production starts to drop off, they're sent to slaughter - at a fraction of their natural life span. Egg production and meat production are inextricably linked. To support one is to support the other.

    To replace the birds that are sent to slaughter, some eggs are hatched. Half of the chicks are male and half female. The male chicks are of course worthless, and they're all slaughtered on the first or second day of their lives. Sometimes they're gassed, but sometimes they're minced alive, or simply thrown into garbage bags - the weight of the ones on top slowly crushing those below to death.

    If you eat eggs from commercial production, you are I'm afraid supporting the killing of living beings. The only way around it is to rescue some hens from being slaughtered and keep them as pets.
  • NirvanaNirvana aka BUBBA   `     `   South Carolina, USA Veteran
    edited May 2010
    davidw wrote: »
    Commercial egg production, whether "free-range" or not inevitably involves inflicting suffering and death on living creatures...
    WOW! What an impressive first point on NewBuddhist.

    I hope you'll stay and shed more light on this and other issues.
  • StaticToyboxStaticToybox Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Wilfred wrote: »
    Whether the egg is fertile or infertile, life is essentially there; and it has all the symptoms of life, such as respiration, brain, feeding ability, etc.

    No. Regardless of whether or not the commercial production of eggs causes suffering this statement simply isn't true. An unfertilized egg is just that, unfertilized. They do not contain an embryo and are no more life than the biological refuse that a woman's body discards during her monthly cycle is.
  • ZenBadgerZenBadger Derbyshire, UK Veteran
    edited May 2010
    In the UK the minimum requirements for free range poultry are:

    - continuous daytime access to outdoor runs.
    - outdoor runs to be mainly covered in suitable vegetation.
    - 4m^2 area per bird.

    Considerably different from "Barn" or battery requirements.

    I keep rescue hens and battery and barn hens are usually in quite a state, I would never be easy about eating eggs produced in such conditions. Free-range birds are generally quite healthy (unless there is a specific case of neglect) and can live quite happily, producing several eggs a week for many years. My beautiful Oxford English Games which were rescued from a cockfighting ring lived a happy twelve years or so and were good layers for most of that time, well apart from Eric the cockerel that is :)
  • edited May 2010
    <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="424"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3" width="25">
    </td> <td align="left" valign="top">"Free-Range" Hen
    • Debeaked with a hot bloody blade at one day old with no anesthetic.
    • Force molted (intentionally starved to shock the body into another laying cycle).
    • Violently packed into a semi and trucked hundreds of miles to an agonizing slaughter when considered “spent” (unable to keep laying eggs at a fast enough pace).
    • Denied the opportunity to live a natural life in truly humane care.
    • All of her brothers (roosters) are brutally killed as baby chicks simply because they can’t lay eggs.
    </td> <td rowspan="3" align="left" valign="top" width="30">
    </td> <td align="left" valign="top">Battery Cage Hen
    • Debeaked with a hot bloody blade at one day old with no anesthetic.
    • Force molted (intentionally starved to shock the body into another laying cycle).
    • Violently packed into a semi and trucked hundreds of miles to an agonizing slaughter when considered “spent” (unable to keep laying eggs at a fast enough pace).
    • Denied the opportunity to live a natural life in truly humane care.
    • All of her brothers (roosters) are brutally killed as baby chicks simply because they can’t lay eggs.
    </td> <td rowspan="3" width="50">
    </td></tr></tbody></table>
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Even "free range" egg producing animals are killed when they stop producing profitable quantities.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited May 2010
    Actually, Elrick, this isn't either strictly or universally accurate, I'm afraid.
    More sensationalist scaremongering.

    If you have joined the forum simply to put forward highly controversial, argumentative and condemnatory posts - without giving either sustenance, links or proof for your claims, then I fear your presence may be short-lived.

    If you're going to make these claims, make sure they are backed up by verifiable and unbiased sources.

    Links please.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited May 2010
    This is insular and domestic, (simply American) and biased.
    I'm asking you to provide evidence from an unbiased source, dealing with information on a general level, not merely concerned with 'home-ground' selective practices.

    We realise you obviously feel strongly about this, but it would help your argument if you were more dispassionate.
  • edited May 2010
    #67,595 is one of the 80,000 birds in a family-owned "free-range" egg facility. She has never seen the sun, or felt the grass under her feet, she has never met her mother. Her eyes are burning with the sting of ammonia fumes, her featherless body is covered with bruises and abrasions, her bones are brittle from the constant drain of egg production, her severed beak is throbbing in pain. She is exhausted, depleted and defeated. After a lifetime of social, psychological, emotional, physical deprivation, she copes by pecking neurotically at phantom targets for hours on end. She is two years old and her life is over. Her egg production has declined, and she will be disposed of by the cheapest means possible – she will be gassed along with the other 80,000 birds in her community. It will take three full work days to finish the job. For two long days, she will hear the sounds and breathe the smells of her sisters being killed in the gas drums outside her shed. On the third day, it will be her turn. She will be grabbed by the legs and taken outdoors for the first time in her life and, like every single one of the 80,000 "spent" hens, like every single one of the 50 billion annual victims of our appetite, she will fight to go on living, and she will accept no explanation and no justification for being robbed of her pathetic only life.

    She
    is the face of the "free-range" eggs we are encouraging college campuses, businesses and consumers to use.


  • edited May 2010
    <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="424"><tbody><tr><td width="25">
    </td> <td align="left" valign="top">[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]#35 is a two-days old baby, his umbilical chord is still attached, his coat is still slick with birth fluids, his eyes are unfocused, his legs, wobbly. He is crying pitifully for his mother. No one answers. He will live his entire short life an orphan, his only experience of mother love will be one of yearning for it, his only experience of emotional connection, one of absence. Soon, the memory of his mother, her face, her voice, her scent, will fade, but the painful, irrepressible longing for her warmth will still be there. At four months old, he and other orphans like himself will be corralled into trucks and hauled to slaughter. As he will be dragged onto the killing floor, he will still be looking for his mother, still desperately needing her nurturing presence, especially at that dark time when he will be frightened and needing her more than ever in the midst of the terrible sights, and sounds, and scents of death all around him and, in his despair, in his want for a shred of consolation and protection, he, like most baby calves, will try to suckle the fingers of his killers.

    He
    is the face of the "rose" veal we are encouraging "responsible restaurant leaders" to use.
    [/FONT]
    </td> <td width="50"> </td></tr></tbody></table>
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited May 2010
    Please quote source.
    if it's from the link above, then forget it.
    I'll just delete it.
    You're getting tiresome......
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    edited May 2010
    but it would help your argument if you were more dispassionate.

    This is a VERY difficult thing to do when you have seen so much suffering... The passion arises from compassion for those that suffer. It's VERY difficult to put that down. I think it is appropriate to keep that in mind when discussing any issue like this. :)
  • ZenBadgerZenBadger Derbyshire, UK Veteran
    edited May 2010
    seeker242 wrote: »
    Even "free range" egg producing animals are killed when they stop producing profitable quantities.

    True but that goes for any marketable resource, there are more humane ways of keeping chickens for eggs but you actually have to get up early to feed them and muck them out rather than just going down the shops.

    The same goes for grains, if you had ever had to unjam a combine harvester you would know just how much unidentifiable "meat" ends up in there, mainly mice and rats, the occasional rabbit or too slow crow. The problem is not with the product but the means of production. I don't see much of a call to go back to hand-reaping anytime soon.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited May 2010
    seeker242, The problem is, he's not discussing rationally.
    I've already made more than one request that he respect different opinions and provide more general links, but as with all militant extremists, there's no reasoning.
    I'm all for open, frank and considered discussion, but this is just ramming, and I'm not of the opinion that it's constructive.
    This discussion will always arouse strong feeling, but it seems this member has but a single agenda.
  • edited May 2010
    I'm not sure I see anything militant, extreme or irrational about the information provided about egg production. There are serious ethical problems with this industry, and quibbling about the sources of this information seems to be missing the point a bit. Animal rights and animal welfare groups the world over have put time and energy into documenting the ways in which animals are abused for profit. There is a wealth of videos, images and reports available on the internet. If you believe that all of this documentation is false or misleading, perhaps you could provide us with some sources that present a different picture?

    The original poster said that they didn't see anything wrong with eating eggs, since egg production didn't involve killing. Pointing out some of the suffering egg production involves is hardly a sensationalist or scaremongering response to this query, let alone extreme, irrational or militant.
  • patbbpatbb Veteran
    edited May 2010
    davidw wrote: »
    The original poster said that they didn't see anything wrong with eating eggs, since egg production didn't involve killing. Pointing out some of the suffering egg production involves is hardly a sensationalist or scaremongering response to this query, let alone extreme, irrational or militant.
    yes, i do admit that my view has change.

    My original view was quite innocent, I just learned a few months ago about free range eggs, and I had this idea of happy hens, running around in a picturesque field, with a nice barn to sleep in and healthy food to eat.
    with rainbows, pot of gold and unicorns flying around ;)

    So, i guess this mean that there are probably some nice free range farms and still many evil factory free range farms, much research is needed.


    Thank you everyone who participated in this thread ;)
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited May 2010
    davidw, his manners leave a lot to be desired, and requests to at least give a uniform opinion backed by unbiased fact (not sensationalist private blogs/websites/forums) went ignored and unheeded.
    as I stated, I'm all for open, frank and rational discussion, but if you read his posts both in this thread and another, he clearly has an agenda which includes - either deliberately or otherwise - causing disruption.
    Not something I'm prepared to allow unchecked.

    Edit:
    as Patbb seems satisfied with the information he has gleaned, and to prevent further disruptive dispute, I shall now close the thread.

    Thanks to all.
This discussion has been closed.