Do vegans really think that eggs and shrimp feel pain?

Question

I mean, from a biological point of view. Is that something that vegans use as an argument against eating these things?

I know eggs don't feel pain, and I doubt that animals like shrimp feel pain.

Answer 1

Shrimp do not feel pain. neither do crabs, lobsters and other such shellfish as they do not have a nervous system which transmit pain to the brain. An unfertilized egg obviously is not even alive, at least not in the manner that can be "abused". My questio to vegans is : have any of you as individuals or as an organization ever conducted a study on the impact of crop agriculture on wildlife? The effect of the ever increasing use of land for crop agriculture which has contributed to destruction of natural habitat which in turn has led to the endangerment and outright eradication of certain wild species due to habitat loss and prey-predator imbalance? Any documentation of the number of animals killed or eradicated due to use of pesticides and other methods such as traps and lures in farms to eradicate "pest" or crop eating wildlife such as rodents, rabbits and birds? I've never received an answer so far. Really curious about that one.

Answer 2

Eggs feel no pain, but the hens who produce them certainly do. And the male baby layer chicks who are slaughtered at birth because they're useless to the industry feel pain as they are killed.

As for shrimp, I can't say for sure. But the trawling of the ocean for seafood is causing great environmental damage. Besides, someone once told me that when you devein a shrimp, you're really removing the animal's digestive tract--ewww.

Answer 3

Yes shrimps feel pain but we're also against the process of getting them from the sea to the plate. This often involves bulldozing the earths oceans with giant trawlers and nets which destroys the sea and kills many other wildlife (inculding turtles and dolphins which also definitely feel pain).

As for eggs... no they don't feel pain as most are unfertilized but again, it's the process we're against. Most eggs come from factory farms which keep hens in appauling conditions and use them as machines. They care more about money than they do the welfare of the animals... this means as many birds as possible are crowded into a minimal amount of space in filthy conditions. Their beaks are chopped off so they don't peck eachother from the stress of how they're kept... this is done with no anaesthetic. Also, male chicks are useless to the egg industry so they're killed at birth. When a hen's egg production dwindles they are sent out to slaughter as they have no 'use' anymore. This is what we're against... we see past the actual egg and see the suffering involved to produce it.

Answer 4

Nobody believes that an unfertilized egg, a single cell, feels pain. But we do believe that the chicken who is debeaked with a hot knife and stuffed in a wire crate with six others, unable to even stretch her wings suffers and feels pain. And we do believe that the male chicks hatched to a laying operation and thrown in a dumpster to starve or suffocate feel pain. Those of us who choose not to eat eggs for animal welfare reasons do it not because the egg itself suffers, we do it because we don't want to support the suffering of real, live chickens.

Answer 5

Vegans make a decision to not eat animals nor use by products of animals (eg. eggs, leather, silk, honey). This is for a variety of reasons, but the vast majority choose to live this lifestyle because of the way the animals are treated and they do not wish to support an industry that locks animals in tiny cages so that they can barely breath or move around...living in filthy conditions until they are slaughtered.

Answer 6

I DON'T doubt that shrimp can feel pain.

I doubt any vegan would say an egg can feel pain, but the hens that lay them, the hens that are crowded in tiny cages and getting their beaks and toes cut off certainly do.

Answer 7

Uh, sorry, I don't remember saying that I argue with people about what I eat and don't eat.

I'm not a shrimp, so I have no idea whether shrimp feel pain and neither do you so don't pretend that you know what others do and don't feel just because you are larger and more advanced than they are.

People can eat whatver they want and others' consumption of shrimp is the least of my concerns.

Have you seen how an egg-laying hen lives to produce food for people? They live in a place worse than hell.
http://meat.org

Answer 8

It's the principle that chickens are being bred and often kept in terrible conditions to just produce egg after egg after agg, and they have been pumped to an extreme with hormone chemicals to produce lots of eggs, i think its more that vegans don't want to support that. As for shrimps, I have no idea.

Answer 9

It's not the eggs they worry about. It's the chicken that laid the egg they feel bad for.

Answer 10

Shrimp feel no pain and taste great.