I'm a vegetarian who keeps chickens just because I love them as individuals, not because I want to eat them. I don't keep them for eggs, either, that's just a free perk of having chickens around if you ask me. I don't eat commercially raised eggs, so if for some reason my birds stopped laying I just would refrain from eating eggs. My chickens stay with me from hatch day until the day they die of natural causes, with the only exceptions being re-homing the occasional bird to excellent homes only. My poultry are all spoiled rotten and loved dearly.
I think what he's saying is somewhat hypocritical because he is implying that keeping chickens in the backyard and eating them is somehow crueler than eating commercially produced chickens, which he apparently does eat. Sounds very naive if you ask me. It's amazing how many people buy into the myth that commercially raised animals are all treated like royalty and carefully monitored their whole lives. I've had many people who don't know better tell me that they're certain the animals they're eating were treated well, and when asked how they know that it becomes apparent it's just a naive assumption. I'm opposed to killing animals to eat regardless of the situation, but of course between the two I believe backyard-raised chickens are much, much less cruel than the commercial broiler operations.
Interesting how people get their heads on backwards like this. It sounds to me like simple ignorance rather than anything else, though. My dad (!) still occasionally buys a carton of eggs rather than asking me to bring him a dozen for free, telling me that the fresh eggs from my chickens are "icky" because he knows where they come from. Same kind of mindset.