last year after i made the move to being a full time vegan, i went to a nutritionist. i knew my parents would be a bit more appeased if i were to go, i wanted to make sure i was still getting all the protein and amino acids i need (especially with me being a runner), and i wanted to trim up a bit. on my first visit, carly asked if i would be open to eating any animal protein at all. chicken? no. fish? no. whey protein powder? no. eggs? hmm... interesting concept... eggs. i told her i was open to it under a couple very important circumstances. first of all, only if the chickens were on a private 'farm' type of setting or on a large piece of land that they could roam free. second of all, if the owner did not slaughter or sell them for slaughter. and third of all, if the owner treated them no different than they did their domestic pet. i also talked to a few vegetarians and vegans about the idea, and the ones i talked to were surprisingly supportive of the idea as well.
and so i went on the search. carly told me about this farm in town, i forget the name. the chickens do have a ton of room to run around. these chickens have an excellent quality of life, well taken care of by the family and staff that runs the farm, and have open access to huge open fields. so i called them to learn more, and to find out if they slaughter. the chickens did appear to have an amazing quality of life, but once their hens stop producing, off with their heads. they are 'humanely' killed and processed, and the meat is frozen and sent to starving families in africa. while i think it is admirable to do so much to help the hungry, i do not believe in the killing an animal just because they are not financially viable to you anymore. they also raised chickens and turkeys for meat and to be, once again, 'humanely' slaughtered. their website even had special advertisements around thanksgiving. so, this farm was out. i will not spend my money on and promote an organization that slaughters.
so then i went on the search to find a person who had chickens, and met the requirements i had. i talked to several people, all of which had chickens running around their backyard, but only had a few hens that produced just enough eggs for them. i was hitting dead end after dead end. and then i was told about a woman with my running group who had chickens and supplied many runners at rogue with their eggs.
stephanie and her family live on a large piece of land in dripping springs. she has several farm animals, some of which are rescues. she also has a lot of chickens that produce eggs not just for her family, but enough for a lot of other people as well. stephanie herself is mostly vegetarian. when i talked to her about her chickens, she referred to them as her 'babies'. she doesn't treat them (or any of her other animals) any different than we treat our dogs or cats, in fact she treats them better than i'm sure many dogs and cats are treated. the more i talked to her, and the more i did research on the biological process of hens laying eggs, i was comfortable eating the eggs.
there are some that think eggs are aborted fetuses. how dare we eat them? we are eating the potential of life, and preventing a life that was to be. why would we abort these baby chickens, fry them up, and eat them alongside bacon? it was horrible, reprehensible. and i admit i used to assume the same, but then when i did more research (and it was quite extensive, including talking to a vet), i learned i was wrong.
the eggs chickens lay are unfertilized eggs. the act of chickens laying eggs is basically no different than us getting our period or other mammals going into heat. we get our period every month, in short, because we didn't get pregnant. but then when our eggs are fertilized, we don't get our period for 9 or 10 months while we are growing this baby. chickens carry the same principle. chickens still lay the eggs, but instead they sit on them until they hatch. when you crack these eggs, even early in the process, the inside looks much different than the unfertilized ones. when you have roosters running around with hens, there will be some eggs around that are fertilized. just like our society in which you have men and women running around having sex, some pregnancies will result but if you don't allow a rooster to have access to them (just like if we were to restrain from sex), all eggs they lay will be unfertilized and safe for us to eat.
now some vegetarians/vegans may come in with this argument, and i've heard it before - but those eggs are the possibility of life. and then you kinda need to make sure those proposing this principle are pro-life. an aborted human fetus is also the possibility of life. so unless they are strongly pro-life, one could conclude their argument is invalid because we view animals as equals as us humans. so then if i am confronted by a vegetarian/vegan who is pro-choice, i have another argument. we have our periods because we don't get pregnant. i hate to get graphic, but what we shed and expel is basically the potential of life. what a man, um, expels is also the possibility of life. so is every emission that doesn't result in a pregnancy considered murder or, as elle woods in legally blonde claims, reckless abandonment? and i could go on. people that find oral sex offensive, shield your eyes from the rest of the paragraph. this is also the alluded idea in the elephant journal article (hence the title, 'do vegans swallow?'). this emission of a man's, um, capabilities results from oral sex. ladies, if you choose to swallow this, is this cannibalism? after all, all the little swimmers are the possibility of life. if we are swallowing them, therefore not allowing them to seek an egg, are we committing murder? and this is commonplace among the sexually active, including the vegan/vegetarian community.
no, we obviously are not. this sexual practice is not murder. having our periods every month is not the reprehensible denial of a life that could be. the sperm never sought an egg, and in the situation of abstinence, never had the possibility. our egg was never fertilized. same principle with hens, but their eggs are exceptionally more edible than us women's. this is the same principle. the hens are going to lay their unfertilized eggs, whether we choose to eat them or not. it is a hen's body's natural body process, just like us. if they are not eaten, they go bad and are then no longer of any use at all. since a rooster did not have access to them, in my eyes us not having sex, those eggs are all going to be unfertilized, just as ours are going to be if we do not have sex or if sex does not result in a pregnancy.
i was watching the documentary vegucated (which i recommend to you), and one of the ladies in the film said something that rang true to me. veganism is not some religion or cult, it is simply about the reduction and end of suffering. and to me that's what it is. i choose to not eat the flesh of animals. i choose to not eat dairy. forcing the lactation of a cow that is not nursing her own calf is not a natural body process, just as forcing my lactation for anyone other than my baby is not a natural body process. and if she is nursing her own calf, i'm not going to take that milk from her baby. i wouldn't want someone to take my milk for someone else. forcing lactation causes stress on the cow, stress on her body, is not a natural biological process, and the stress can even cause her life to be shorter than it would otherwise. but i fall short on a reason to not eat the eggs under the circumstances and for the reasons noted above.
there was another interesting point brought up by the article. since us vegans are vehemently against corporate farming and the raising of animals for slaughter, and if we were all vegan, would there be farm animals at all? would they become endangered or extinct? should we not have cows and chickens and pigs and goats and lambs and sheep? i don't necessarily think so, but we'd have far less for damn sure. we would not force these animals to continually be pregnant, only to take their babies to kill them just like their parents' demise. instead we would have them in the sense i have toby. i've had a few friends over the years with a pet pig.
i've read a lot about sanctuaries that rescue farm animals, largely from these huge abusive corporate farms. these sanctuaries save these animals, nurse them back to health, rid them of the trauma, raise them, and let them carry on the remainder of their now happy lives. these animals are literally smiling - i've seen it. they are so happy and fulfilled it brings tears to my eyes. these animals are treated no different than we treat our dogs and cats. and to me, these sanctuaries are no different than dog or cat rescues - they take orphaned or abused animals to take care of and/or to place in happy and healthy homes. one day i would love to live outside of town and have lots of land to do the same - i want to rescue all the animals that i can. i want to take care of an orphaned calf whose mother may have been killed for hamburger meat, and was perhaps to be sold for veal. i want to rescue a few pigs that were about to be electrocuted. i want to take chickens who can barely walk because their bodies grew too big too fast from all the hormones they were pumped with, their legs can't hold their own body weight, nurse them back to health, make them strong, and let them live out the rest of their life happy. i want to rescue orphaned lambs on their way to the slaughterhouse. saving these animals and affecting their quality of life would give me so much joy. making a difference, no matter how small, would bring a permanent smile to my face. would i allow them to breed? not unless it happens naturally, just as we become pregnant naturally. here are some of these amazing places if you want to check them out.
http://www.gentlebarn.org/
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/
http://rockyridgerefuge.com/
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