What do vegans do with chicken eggs?

[Nsampsel]

Our cows didn't get milked by us, they only produced milk for their calves. Completely natural. I don't see a problem with milking a cow who's feeding a calf, i.e. let the calf drink and milk what's left for household use, but we preferred not to. The cows didn't have a problem. Never had mastitis or any milk-related problems.
What I find cruel is farmers who take away day-old calves, refusing them their mother's milk. And those poor cows at the dairy farms who has to mass produce milk. Their udders end up rubbing against their legs until they got sores. I've seen cows that had to be propped up at milking time, they could barely stand or walk.

THAT is cruelty. That's why I wish I lived in the country so I could have a cow or goat or 2. Then my kids could have fresh milk daily (I rarely drink milk, but am not a vegan/vegetarian) and I would know it was from a happy, healthy cow. I grew up eating home grown meat, goat's milk, fresh eggs, etc. We knew the animals were as happy & healthy as we could make them during their lives. My brother & I neither one could drink cow's milk as babies/young children, so it was especially fortunate for us that my aunt had milk goats (milked by hand, twice a day I think) when we were young & so my parents didn't have to spend a fortune on alternative milk replacers (we are talking almost 40 yrs ago when these were not readily available).

 

[shell3]

I agree I would not choose to drink a cows milk anyway, human milk is for human babies and cows milk is for cows babies, lots of babies are intolerant of cows milk anyway because it's very different from human milk and not designed for humans! These babies are sick a lot and have exma (spelling!) a friend of mine had this with her daughter her body was red rore and itchy I suggested cutting out dairy and she did, no more exma and just normal spit up no more sick! She is also gaing weight now which was an issue before. My two children age 8 and 3 have been vegan from birth and are much healthier and get Ill a lot less than most the kids at school!

 

[Nsampsel]

Mine are pretty healthy too. Neither have missed any days this year to actually being sick. My daughter missed a day to got to a funeral & my son missed 2 days cuz he got into poison ivy & his eyes almost swelled shut (inherited Mom's severe reaction to it). I try to feed mine as little processed stuff as possible & we eat fresh or frozen fruits & veggies when we can, or grow our own when possible. I try to buy local meats that I know are at least somewhat humanely treated when possible as well, but not always possible in my area. We don't eat a lot of meat but try to stick to whole cuts with as little processing as possible when we can. We do use some hamburger, but not a ton. I grew up with homemade sausage (helped Grandpa stuff the casings myself), venison, rabbit, squirrel (wild animals live life to the fullest before becoming meals), & sometimes our own beef, chickens & eggs. We always had a huge garden when I was a kid & my Mom canned almost everything we ate for many years. She even made her own spaghetti sauce & chili from our garden produce. I have not been so fortunate as to have room for a garden in many years but am trying to get 1 out this year now that I have room. I'm not saying 1 dietary preference is better than another. It's simply a preference. However, I chose to eat as fresh as I can with as minimal processing as I can whenever possible. This is my method of keeping animals safe & happy & my family healthy.

 

[sumi]

There's been some arguments about free range eggs being healthier than battery, but I do know that free range animals and chickens don't need to get stuffed with medicine (which we then eat). Free, happy animals and chickens = healthy food for us. Or, as one woman I know said "Happy eggs"
My ex boss criticised me for slaughtering and eating my pigs, but at least I know what they ate all their lives (they were born and raised on our farm), what medicine they had when they got sick etc. Same with my chickens. I'd love to get a cow, but we can't as we're moving in a few month's time, but I'll definitely consider it in future. In the meantime I grow vegetables, have lots of hens for eggs and meat from my pigs. And it's tastier than anything I can get from the shops.

 

[shell3]

Good post. I know I've also met some very unhealthy vegans too! I've often had the discussion of how things used to be when people lived from their animals to survive and also of keeping animals yourself and caring for them well before killing them for food and my answer is always that if your going to eat meat that's certainly the best way to do it and if you don't have room to keep your own then sourcing well treated animals from some one who does is much better than buying supermarket meat and such. I personally don't agree with killing animals for food at all and I live happy and healthy without meat dairy fish or eggs but this is my feelings and of course everyone is entitled to their own. What I like to see is people caring about where their food comes from and how it was treated. We all do our bit and decide what we are comfortable with, lots of people, friends of mine spring to mind! , won't discuss it and say they don't want to think about it, when asked if they could take an animals life themselves they say of course not so I think that people who eat their own animals are more honest about eating meat as there not letting someone else do the ugly bit for them and then closing there eyes to it. But I must admit I struggle to see how anyone manages to kill the animal after bonding with it! I just couldn't and couldn't let someone else do it either. How do the children react to pet piggy for instance being served up for dinner? Do they ask lots of questions? Would they be allowed to witness the slaughter ? I've had my chickens 11 weeks and already I love them as do my children, my children are life vegans and raised with the ethics of such so I know their reaction would be one of devastation but a child raised eating meat ? As a child when I understood a chicken on the plate was actually a dead chicken I refused to ever eat meat again and could not understand why people ate dead animals, I still don't. Perhaps you make an effort not to bond? I'd be interested to know, does it upset you when you kill them?

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Perhaps you make an effort not to bond? I'd be interested to know, does it upset you when you kill them?

If you have one of something you bond with it. If you have 50, not so much. I don't like killing anything but that's life.

As for kids. My cousins girls got mad the other day cause he killed an cleaned the birds while they were at school. They have no issue seeing the animals as food.

 

[shell3]

Wow so they must enjoy the slaughter! That's disturbing to me, my kids won't even kill a spider, they get taken outside and set free!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

You may see it as slaughter but they see it as fixing dinner.

 

[sumi]

When I raise pigs I keep in mind from day 1 that they're going to get slaughtered, so I prepare for it mentally and make sure whoever does the killing and slaughtering, which I help with, takes care to do it quick and with minimum stress and fuss. I still get upset on slaughter days and I miss my pigs, but I'd rather eat them than a pig who suffered on a big pig farm where no-one gave a flying pig about their comfort. Our pigs are an affordable way for us to get meat. I get lots of free food for them and I calculated once that their meat cost me 15-20% of what I'd pay at the butcher for pork. We cannot afford to buy loads of meat, so this is a cheaper way to do things. And I know my pigs had a good time here. When they were babies they free ranged with the chickens, they stayed with mom, drinking her milk as well as eating, until they were 10 weeks old (they usually get weaned at 4 weeks). My sow was happy, she didn't lose weight, the piglets were happy, so I left them with her. They got fed very well. I used to joke with my DH that they ate better than we did most of the time!
My son started hanging around when we slaughter, though I would never let him watch the killing. It turned into a bit of a biology lesson for him. Lots of "what's that?" and me teaching him about the different organs and their functions. It doesn't upset him that we eat them.

 

[shell3]

It's an interesting view. I guess I choose not to shut off my feelings about it but I know lots who do and as you say you looked after yours, most people buy theirs from a shop and shut out the feelings,not knowing or caring how the animal lived.