Im a vegan but i have just bought some chickens as pets so is it ok to ear their eggs?

Question

I have just bought 2 wonderful Delaware chickens to keep as pets, but I am a vegan and i was wondering if it was right or not to eat their eggs... so i need some advice..

Answer 1

VEGAN....no meat or dairy products....eggs included!

i bet your one of those vegans who still eats bacon...

Answer 2

Wow! Does anyone here even know anything about chickens and laying eggs? If not don't even answer the question, you're making yourself look foolish. First of all the guy said he bought two CHICKENS, so what's all this talk of him being a hypocrite for eating them because the eggs will turn into baby chicks? There's no rooster about, they won't be fertilized and they will never hatch. Is this not obvious? But to answer your question I believe it is fine to eat these chickens eggs, as long as it's those only. Treat them very well (as I'm sure you would being vegan) and they will lay alot of eggs, and it is up to you whether you want to eat a few yourself or give them to family or friends. I think everyone looses sight of what it actually means to be vegan. Stop living by the 'guidelines' and actually start doing what is right and ethical. Otherwise you all appear as 'band-wagon' vegans, unable to make up your own minds on what's right and wrong.

Answer 3

You're a vegan but you bought animals? Where from? Not from a farm that kills the male chicks, I hope? Seriously, I don't think animals should be for sale. If you wanted some, you really should have adopted animals in need of a home. But I'm not here to criticize.

Anyway, you can eat their eggs if you want, if you keep them in a large, open-air space, doesn't sound to bad to me. You won't technically be vegan anymore, but that's just a word really. The main thing is that you're not causing any suffering. If I were you I would give the eggs to non-vegans though, so they don't buy eggs from hens who are suffering and will be killed. But the decision is yours, you have to do what you feel is right and best for the animals.


Go vegan!

Answer 4

Well, if you eat eggs I would say you're not a vegan (but maybe an lacto-ovo vegetarian??)
However if you just don't want to eat meat, I asked a friend of mine who owns a farm about it, and she said that if the eggs aren't fertilized by a rooster then there is no chick inside, so there is no harm done. The only way the egg can develop a chick is by good old fashioned you know what. So if you own a rooster, keep him the heck away from your chickens and treat them with love! I guess there are a lot of different opinions about this one!

Answer 5

It depends on why you are a vegan. Is it for health reasons primarily? If so, then your nutritional worries would apply to all eggs, and so you should not.

Is it for ethical or environmental reasons? In that case I see nothing wrong eating the eggs. If you avoid eggs becuase of concerns about animal suffering (the horrible ways laying hens are treated or the slaughter of male chicks) then your worries do not apply. Similarly any environmental impact those eggs have (which is going to be far less than that of factory farmed eggs) is going to be negligible and will exist whether or not you eat the eggs. No animal will suffer from you eating those eggs. They are really just the periods of the hens.

Health reasons aside, the only other reason I can think of is if you are attached to the "vegan" label. You will not technically be a vegan. But as long as your are true to the reasons behind your veganism (animal rights, environmentalism, etc.) the label itself does not matter.

sandstorm gives a good answer (one of very few to this question unfortunately!) But I do not know if you have to go that far. If you feel that you do, why not buy a vegan meal for a meat-eater instead? It may be nice, but is hardly a moral obligation. And I am pretty sure that the hens do not have any attachment to unfertilized eggs (I have asked someone about this before).

Answer 6

I would say that strictly speaking no you can't eat their eggs. Vegans specifically do not consume animal products.
Surely eating one egg is the same as eating any other egg, no matter what its source.

But then a major reason most people are vegans is the ethical consideration.......so if the chickens are happy and not suffering then why not eat the eggs? If you want to eat them then do so, don't feel trapped by the label 'vegan'.

Answer 7

Well I'm kind of the same way except I'm not the one who owns the chickens, they belong to a friend of mine who I visit once in a while. While there, I'll have eggs because I know the chickens are happy and that they're not fertilized since there are no roosters around. I'll still call myself vegan though because it's not like I'd ever eat something with eggs or have eggs anywhere else.

To me, I define vegan as being cruelty free, so I really wouldn't see what would be wrong with having eggs from your own pet chickens. Just have your eggs and don't worry about what anyone else says. The majority of the answers people lefter were actually really stupid and/or mean.

I'd still call yourself a vegan too because it makes things easier when having dinner with friends and what not to make sure they don't use store bought eggs in what they serve you. Plus to me, since I define vegan as having as cruelty free of a life style as possible, you are a vegan.

Answer 8

It depends why you are vegan.... if you're doing it for health reasons, those chickens' eggs are just like other chickens' eggs (except without all the growth hormones and all that fun stuff). If you're doing it for ethical reasons because you disagree with the treatment of animals, but you're treating your animals just great, then go for it! I don't think you could claim to be a vegan after that though, but anyone else who is a vegan for ethical reasons would surely understand. Good luck!

Answer 9

It depends on your reasoning but personally I wouldn't eat their eggs because the place where you got them from probably killed any male chickens because people are only interested in buying females for eggs. I wouldn't therefore like to support these people in the first place by buying hens from them. I asked a question similar to this... my parents are planning to keep hens and I was wondering whether there would be anything ethically wrong in eating eggs if they were from rescued battery farm hens. I'm still not sure whether there would be because the whole reason they were made to suffer was due to their egg laying... it really is hard to decide what's right so I think I would just not eat the eggs to avoid the headache of trying to decide!

If you are thinking of getting more hens I would urge you to get rescue hens rather than buying them... I'm not sure where you got them but it's very likely that you have supported an industry which doesn't favour male chickens. Jellbz gave me a link to a great site where you can find more information on rescue hens:

http://www.bhwt.org.uk

Answer 10

Wow, some of the answers are a bit mean. LOL. First I'd like to correct the assumption that they are baby chickens. Since you have no roosters, those eggs are not sentient beings and never will be. They're like a hunk of cheese. However, you have to consider whether the hens are going to be emotionally affected if you take away their eggs. If not, you can try giving away the eggs to an egg-eating friend or neighbor, thereby temporarily preventing them from buying the conventional cruel eggs.

If you can't give them away, and the hens lose interest in their eggs, I see no ethical reason why you shouldn't eat them.

Answer 11

Well, if they are both hens, then the eggs would simply go to waste because they haven't been fertilized.

Jenny84 asked this question before, as well.

It's 100% your personal choice. Don't let anyone tell you that you're not a "real" vegan. There aren't any vegan police around, that I know of.

Besides... your chickens wouldn't be abused and kept in tiny little cages!