The way I see it is this: I’m not going to stop eating meat or eggs. Either I cull and/or slaughter, or someone else does it for me—on my behalf and out of my sight where I don’t have to think about it. Often this means the process might not be done with kindness and indeed the animal’s life might have been miserable as well. It *always* means that I’m insulated from the cost, in the life and death of an animal, of my own nourishment.
If we keep birds for their eggs, we have to keep the flock healthy. That’s part of the cost in life that accrues to keeping laying hens. That will often (and eventually in nearly all cases but those taken by predators) mean the culling of some birds. If we purchase all females from a hatchery, we are, by that act, depriving many male chicks of their lives (as they will have to be killed since the hatchery cannot keep numberless male birds.)
OTOH, if we humans suddenly all decided to become strict vegetarians, who would keep chickens or cows or pigs, sheep, goats, etc. at all? They would become a rarity to be seen only at zoos (unless we decided that zoos are cruel—in which case they would die out, with possibly a few rare exceptions kept as pets—unless that’s cruel, too.)
So, while it’s a sober and unloved task, culling and/or slaughter is an essential part of animal husbandry. You can get someone else to do it for you and that’s fine. I just feel that they’re my responsibility, especially at the end. They’re my animals; it’s my job.
