Why vegans reject the consumption of eggs?

ANIMAL FARM: EGGS

An egg is a rounded body size and hardness variables that produce females from different groups of animals, and supports and protects the embryo if the egg is fertilized, thus becoming zygote. Oviparous vertebrates lay eggs, with little or no development inside the mother, and many invertebrates. This is the reproduction of many fish, amphibians and reptiles, all birds, mammals monotremes, and most insects and arachnids. When the eggs develop inside the mother ovoviviparismo discussing.

The egg laying hen is your ovulation, therefore, as occurs when a woman ovulates (the next rule) is not necessary that the hen has sex for them. Only fertilized eggs chicks born.

The ways in how you can get an egg are:

- Exploitation of hens in cages.

- Exploitation of hens in floor.

- Exploitation of hens.

- Exploitation of ecological chickens.

- Hen as "pet".

Stealing eggs

Across the European Union 97.2 billion eggs are stolen from their mothers, bound for the food industry. Theft occurs in both chicks hatcheries and farm eggs for consumption.

Sexing chicks

With chicken sexing separates males from females in sexing carousels where millions of chickens are treated as mere commodities. The chicks are stressed, are hit and suffer fractures.The chicks that pass through the carousel sexed and have economic value are sold to farms to organic farms to family farms and individuals.

The male chicks are killed

For each laying hen, whether it is confined in a cage or jacket that is a chicken in "freedom", there is a male chick who was killed at the hatchery. This is because hens breeds have been genetically selected exclusively for maximum egg production, males do not lay eggs and are not fattening fast enough or not enough weight to reach the eating of meat. Therefore, male chicks hens breeds have no economic value, since it does not lay eggs nor are fattening broiler breed quickly, and literally thrown away the day they are born, usually by the cheapest means: thrown into trash cans by the thousands, male chicks die axfisiados or crushed by the weight of others, are directly gassed or crushed.

Another common method for getting rid of unwanted male chicks is grinding them alive. This can lead to unimaginable horrors, as described by a scientist who observed that "even after twenty seconds, there were only partly damaged animals with whole skulls". That is fully conscious chicks were partially ground slowly into a brutal agony. Eyewitness in hatcheries indicate similar horrors of chicks being slowly dismembered by machinery blades en route to the trash bins or manure spreaders.

- A hidden camera investigation by Mercy For Animals showed how male chicks are ground on a poultry farm center, a common practice in the industry.

Some of these male chicks end up being painted and sold in stalls like toys. The chicks are usually painted with aniline, which is a toxic substance, and with vegetable dyes. As a result, many chicks die in the process or in the days after purchase.

Beak trimming

Beak trimming is a common practice among poultry farm farms (including so-called 'green') which involves amputating the peak (bone, cartilage and tissue) to chicks 5-10 days old by a machine BEAK. The machine BEAK peak amputated end of chicks by a hot blade cauterized the cut. The wound bleeds and sometimes burns and infections occur, not forgetting the obvious pain mutilation. Beak trimming is twofold: to prevent cannibalism among the most stressed birds and reduce feed waste.

In the book Guidelines for the management of a poultry farm beak trimming is explained as follows:

"This practice has two purposes, to prevent cannibalism (which occurs frequently by stress) and reduce feed waste. Should be done quickly because to a machine that is used BEAK with hot knife cuts both generally upper and lower part of the beak. warm blade cauterized (stops bleeding) cutting, avoiding massive bleeding. cannibalism starts pecking and feather plucking of each other, until the break or cut skin and bleeding. If not controlled in time at this stage of bleeding, more aggressive birds end up killing the weakest. the red color of blood is what catches their attention more, so that the problem of cannibalism is more serious in birds of clear or white ". Boris Coto, Guidelines for the management of a poultry farm

The bill has very important functions for birds. Besides being a means of defense and perception of sensations, is the mouth of the birds, and therefore the input for food. Many birds whose beaks have been starved amputees to get their beaks stuck, for the pain of the injury or because they can not hold the food.

It is also common for bird calls "organic farms" are also the peak amputee, because birds are crowded at night and also stress often leads to set upon each other. A chicks intended for the sale of their meat were also amputated the peak, as they are also crowded during the 21-39 days that makes them fat quickly.

Overcrowding of hens

When females are old enough to lay eggs, with about 16 or 18 weeks, moved to the farm of chickens, a plant generally consists of several buildings, each the length of a football field, filled with rows of wire cages, sometimes stacked to the roof: is what is called "battery hens". These cages have uneven ground, so that the egg rolling through a conveyor path of the next stage of production.

To optimize the production of each building, many chickens are crammed in the same cage as possible.

There are two types of cages for hens: conventional or adapted or upgraded and enriched. The conventional or unenriched cages are banned in the European Union are the only authorized cages enriched cages. This decision took in 1999 and entered into force on January 1, 2012. European legislation provides that each hen enriched cages must have a minimum of 750 cm ² of cage / chicken, 600 cm ² of which shall be usable. 

To give us an idea of the space available to the hens who live in these cages for their entire life is less than the surface of a sheet of A4 size paper (21 x 29.7 = 623.7 cm ²). The cage should have a minimum of 30 cm of usable width and a maximum inclination of 14%, plus a minimum of 45 cm in height. In addition, the cage must have a nest, litter such that pecking and scratching, and adequate perches that offer at least a space of 15 cm per hen. The nest and perch are not counted as usable area.

The conditions are reduced, preventing the animal performing normal behaviors such as nesting and grooming, both important for the hens. Constantly rubbing against the wire cages, they suffer from severe feather loss, and their bodies are covered with bruises and abrasions.

Forced to a lifetime of foot, legs are deformed, the wire cut your fingers, which also bows and become claws to hold on an unsuitable floor. Sometimes in cold conditions your legs are frozen in the bars.

Molting

Laying hens may be forced to make molting leaving them in darkness, making them go hungry and thirsty for 18 days to stimulate their bodies to complete another laying cycle. Typically between 5 and 10% of birds die of starvation or dehydration during molting, and those who survive may lose more than 25% of their body weight. The move makes starting a new cycle of egg laying when the production floor, and so lengthen the economic productivity of these animals. The photo hen was rescued from a factory egg with broken body by this method.

"Spent" hens

Currently each half hen lays 260 eggs per year. The statistics of 1940 showed a production of 134 eggs per hen per year, which gives us insight into the genetic and environmental manipulations were carried out to double production . They suffer from " fatty liver syndrome " when their liver cells working overtime to produce fat and protein for egg yolks, accumulate extra fat . They also suffer from what the industry calls ' cage fatigue " , and many animals die when their bodies are too weak to lay an egg . Osteoporosis is another common ailment that afflicts laying hens , because their bodies lose more calcium to form egg shells than they can assimilate from their diets. Some hens used an amount of calcium for yearly egg production that is greater than the weight of the entire skeleton . Lack of calcium aids in the breakdown of bones , paralysis , and death. After one year in egg production , birds are classified as " spent hens " and sent to slaughter. His brittle bones, and decalcified often break during the trip to the slaughterhouse . They usually end up as ingredients in soups , pies or meat products of inferior quality, in which bodies can be shredded to hide the bruises consumers .

In a guide for management explained in a poultry farm hens wear well:

" A" selection " practice of detecting , first by sight and then by individual physical examination , all those birds that have no uniformity within a flock and who appear ill and / or are not producing. Once localized to a chicken with the appearance of not being in production , one proceeds to check her separation with the pelvic bones , which are located on both sides of the gutter and between which there must be a gap of about three cm . This separation or space is necessary because there must pass the egg. It is important to make this selection because the birds do not reduce the profits of productive activity . For this reason you should always be rigorous selection , you should make when birds turn 15 weeks old and again at five weeks into production. Then you must perform at least once a month . "Boris Coto, " Guidelines for the management of a poultry farm!"

Slaughterhouse
All hens, have spent their lives in a cage or "freedom" in the slaughterhouse just once cease to be productive and therefore profitable for the speciesist because a chicken is not an individual who deserves respect but one thing that produces benefits. This was explained in a guide for management in a poultry farm:

"The ideal time to make the decision to remove certain batch of birds is when the value of the egg produced is equal to the cost of food." Boris Coto, "Guidelines for the management of a poultry farm"

Buy eggs from hens in "freedom" reduces some of the suffering of these animals in life, something that is positive but insufficient if we want to treat these beings with respect and justice they deserve. Their lives, and ours, should not be owned by anyone because they are not simple objects.

Not for health reasons but for ethics

It should be clear that vegans do not eat eggs because of ethical reasons to the other animals, not a health issue. The health arguments are for information only. For example, failing to consume eggs we will improve our health. Eating just one egg at breakfast can raise cholesterol levels up to 10 points. The human body produces all the cholesterol it needs, and when extra cholesterol is consumed, the excess clogs arteries.

- In August 2012, researchers at University Hospital in London (United Kingdom), vascular prevention experts, studied data from 1231 men and women with an average age of 61.5 years. Using ultrasound measured the total area of ​​plate and collected simultaneously data on lifestyle including medication, cigarette smoking and number of egg yolks consumed per week. It identified that both excess snuff as the abuse of egg yolks (three or more per week) accelerate atherosclerosis, as reported in the journal Atherosclerosis. Remind investigators in diabetics, for example, it was found that an egg yolk a day can increase from 2 to 5 times the risk of coronary heart disease.

- Eggs are one of the main sources of salmonella, a bacteria that sickens millions and cause up to 3,800 deaths annually in the U.S.