The hen's owner reveals a degree of imbalance in judgment that can nearly be predictive of certain things, e.g. how long he/she has been vegan (I might estimate at least 7 years). The greatest tragedy in this situation is not that of the hen--it is that the owner is becoming brain-damaged as a result of his/her vegan diet and consequent deficiency of vitamin B12. The longer one has been vegan, the more fanatical his or her views become. It will be nearly impossible, at this stage of the mental impairment, to persuade this individual otherwise.
Your assertion here is that veganism necessitates brain damage. This is remarkably arrogant, especially given that even
you later admit that it works perfectly fine for some people, but more importantly, the later comments on which your argument relies are... something less than robust.
If you ARE on a vegan diet, you need to know that cyanocobalamin, the most common form of B12 in supplements and as a food additive, is virtually useless. Studies have shown that 98% of this exits the body within 24 hours, whether it was taken orally or via injection (the kidneys take it out). If you are a vegan, you need to know about methylcobalamin--it is more expensive and less commonly available, but well worth it. Vegans should also be aware that nutritional/food yeast does not naturally contain B12, and it will only have it if the producer added it (probably as cyanocobalamin).
98% exiting so soon is a very alarming number to quote, and does indeed make it sound useless, but you've left out a pretty key detail. The average adult human requires somewhere in the range of 1-2μg a day. If you're supplementing to restore deficiency or as general upkeep, there's nothing wrong with - and indeed, what is done is - taking 50 times as much to compensate. that's still mere milligram(s) of the stuff, which is possible to manufacture very cheaply, and if you look at supplements, that's indeed what is done.
There is no purely vegan source of vitamin B12--this vitamin comes only from animal products.
I don't even need to say much to counter this, as you all but blatantly contradict yourself in your most recent post:
Cows, for example, get B12 from the bacteria which breaks down the beta-chain cellulose of the grass they eat. Essentially, cows get their nutrition from the bacteria which they fed by the well-chewed grass (cud).
Where you outline the fact that bacteria is the source of B12. Yes, framed here as a product innate to an animal, but the current human method of producing B12 is by cultivating bacteria. How is this not vegan? Why would you say this? It's simply and demonstrably
wrong. As you say yourself, every living thing gets its b12 from bacteria, not just from production in the gut, but from dirty food water, and living environments. Obviously we shouldn't be consuming contaminated produce, which is why hygienic bacterial cultivation is necessary.
Another thing to note is that not even farm animals bred for eating get enough, due to their unnatural living conditions, and so farmers have to heavily supplement their feed, or in the case of some ruminants, supplementing the soil itself (with cobalt) to aid in gut production of B12.
You are correct to assert that B12 deficiency leads to everything you detailed, and too that a mismanaged diet of
any sort leads to deficiency in it - but wrong to assert that it is an automatic consequence of a vegan diet. You have failed to disprove that supplementation serves it's function, and your views are clearly coloured by anecdotal evidence.
