Can I eat my own chicken's eggs?

[Clover Cavy]

Can I eat my own chicken's eggs even if I'm trying to go vegan? Would it even be okay to eat them if my dad decides to kill them? (I know it sounds mean but they are so spoiled, they get let out 2-3 times a day, they get the best food and a huge coop) I thought vegitarianism and veganism was to help stop animal cruelty, so if the animals have or had a good life is it okay to eat them or their products?

[TipiDancer]

In my oppinion, killing an animal even though it's having a great life so you can eat it is pointless... The point of having or caring for an animal is so it can have a great life and not just to eat. If you are a vegan, why even question eating your own chicken or its eggs? Why would your dad even kill them? I'd definately like the animal to die peacefully and not by a human being.

[standuprookie]

If you did that it would be the same as buying the free range chicken in the spermarket, Right?

[Clover Cavy]

Well, I should just through the eggs away or eat them, which is better? Wasting products that are made by happy hens or wasting them? Well, the original plan was to get chickens, keep them till they stopped laying them eat them so we could buy new chickens. But I got attached to them and am never going to kill them, it was just a question.
I can understand not eating eggs from store bought chickens who live in a metal crate from begining to end, but backyard chickens who aren't miserable, it seems a waste to just through them away. And like I said before, isn't the whole point of vegitarianism to prevent animal abuse? And if there's no animal abuse going on...

[standuprookie]

You can do what you whatever you want. You just won't technically be a vegan.

[Clover Cavy]

Okay. Thankyou. =)

[Percy's Mom]

If you eat the chickens, you wouldn't be vegetarian at all, no matter how wonderful a life the chickens lead. If you eat eggs, no matter where they come from, you could be vegetarian, but not vegan.

[Fluffball]

The whole point of being a vegetarian isnt just to stop animal abuse its to stop the meat industry and the killing of animals altogether. Every life is precious and the logic is that humans should not kill animals just because they ''can''. Because they have the ability to do so. They do not kill the animal to survive but merely for the sake of their taste buds.

A life is worth more than one simple meal. It should never be taken away just because a person ''can''. Animals are innocent creatures that should be protected and live a full life and die peacefully. No human has the right to take away that life and cut short that animals right to be here on this earth.

Its not just about stopping the abuse, its about stopping people killing the animals, exporting them, and seeing them as intellegent, beautiful companions and friends and not as mere ''meals'' meant to be exploited for profit.

[VoodooJoint]

Personally I think it's okay to eat the eggs. You won't be a vegan but you will be getting your eggs cruelty free and that is the part about eating meat and animal products that bothers me the most.

The chickens are going to lay eggs whether you eat them or not. They can go to waste, you can sell them or you can allow them to hatch (if fertilized) until you have more chickens then you can comfortably keep. In a situation like this I thin it makes sense to eat the eggs if you so chose.

I also think it is your personal choice whether or not you eat a chicken that your father kills. There are many reasons people become vegetarian. Some don't want to kill animals, some don't like the cruelty caused by mass slaughter, some do it for health reasons. I actually have an aquaintance who does not like animals but is a strict vegertarian because he knows it's healthier for him.

In my opinion if people killed the animal, cleaned it and butchered it themselves they would probably eat a lot less meat. Ages back when people did have to kill their own meat they ate a lot less of it. Now people eat meat (or animal products) 3-4 times a day. Since people started buying their meat neatly packaged in stores at cheap prices their views have changes and the animals have paid the price for our gluttony.

It's up to you if you eat your own chickens or not. If you do just make certain their lives are good and their deaths quick.

[CavySpirit]

Fresh chicken eggs from chickens that are truly free ranging with a lot of real outdoor room and a great life are wonderful, in my opinion. I wish I had the space to do that here! (and time and energy). If the chickens are in a coop all day or worse yet, caged, then I'd say no way. It depends on your fathers practices, to me. Eating the chicken? Hell no.

You are most certainly NOT a vegetarian if you eat that chicken. You are not a vegan if you eat the egg. In fact, you are not even a true vegetarian if you eat the egg. You are an ovo-vegetarian. Lacto-ovo-vegetarians eat eggs and dairy products.

Is it better to eat that chicken than eating factory-farmed chickens? Yes. However, my guess is that your parents buy meat at the grocery store, too, as well as eat it out like everyone else does. And probably hunt. That is the typical life-style of the gentleman farmer. I grew up with it. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have worked a lot harder on educating my family and myself.

[Clover Cavy]

Thanks, you guys have been very helpfull and I'll need you around when I'm trying to convince my dad to not kill my chickens (which have names and are absolutely gorgeous!) Thanks for all your input. Fluffball, I like the way you said "We do not kill the animals to survive but merely for the sake of our taste buds" That is very true.

[cavyinhawaii]

Most eggs, unless you have roosters are unfertilized. They would end up rotting anyway. We had a neighborhood chicken that laid eggs in peoples yards. They were never fertilized because there were no roosters. They would end up rotting and smelling.
Vegan's= eat no animal products at all.
Vegetarians= some eat eggs and milk some don't.

If it were me, I would eat the eggs rather than waste them and let them rot. If they are fertilized I would have to leave them alone. That is a little chicken in a fertilized egg.

[piggy-lover]

Well, if you're trying to become vegan then you can't eat eggs. If you're just a vegetarian you can, but vegans eat no meat, dairy, or eggs. Personally I hate eggs because I heard somewhere there actually a chicken period, , but I have no idea if it's true or not.

[Sabriel]

If you want to stay vegan and not waste you could always donate the eggs to the less fortunate who can barely afford food let alone vegan food. The eggs don't go to waste, you stay vegan, and hungry people have a decent protien source.


Just an option. But it only works if you can find a place that takes fresh food. I'm still looking for a way to donate all the meat my husband brings home to the local soup kitchens.

[ScottandDebbie]

Originally Posted by Clover Cavy

Can I eat my own chicken's eggs even if I'm trying to go vegan?

Scott and I are pretty strict about having *nothing* to do with anything that would cause discomfort/ suffering/ death to any animal.

Your question has been batted around between Scott and I.

If a chicken appeared in front of me and dropped an egg at my feet, and walked away, would I eat the egg?
*In honesty... I might consider eating that egg.*

So does that no longer make me a vegan?
My morals and intentions would not have changed.
I suppose that why I hate labels so much.

I haven't eaten an egg since becoming a vegan, but there again... I haven't had any hen drop an egg at my feet.

You raise a good question.

[JarBax]

I have a friend who has hens - free range (they have acres of garden - walled, lawn and woodland, and their hens free range the lot.) She calls herself vegan - but eats the eggs her hens lay.

I occasionally eat eggs, cheese and fish - but hate the label ovo-lacto-pescatarian, as I spend 100% of my life in careful consideration of my actions (in buying food/wearing animal products/buying cruelty free etc). I have reached a point in my life where I can live with the choices I make - having been strict vegan, I speak from the position of 'been there' - found it unbearably hard!

I couldn't agree more with Debbie's point about labels, morals and intentions.