Unfertilized Eggs are Chicken Periods + Other Reasons Vegans Don’t Eat Eggs

I get this question a lot. And for the record, most people are pretty nice when they ask me, albeit I live in California where veganism is not only accepted but increasingly popular. But really, why don’t vegans eat eggs? And would they eat them if they had their own free-range, happy chickens?

There are a few things that are generally undisputed about egg production. I’ll start with the most obvious and blatant reason eggs are considered cruel by a vegan…chicken farmers need to hatch chicks to have a continual flow of egg-bearing hens. Unfortunately, male chicks are essentially useless as you only need one rooster to fertilize multiple eggs. Point blank – those male chicks are sent to a meat grinder or gassed. The image of those little fluff butts being ground up alive is enough to give me nightmares. I am actually thinking I should have ended with this because the thought alone is making me sad all over again.

#2 Hens in captivity produce 300+ eggs a year. Let’s get back to basic biology – the goal of every living organism is to procreate. As we continually take eggs away from hens, they will continually lay eggs. Let’s say, that’s not a huge deal, they want to lay eggs, it’s their job! Great. But eventually, the time will come when a hen is no longer able to produce eggs, and they are slaughtered. Regardless if that hen was in a cage or “free-range” once they stop producing they are of no value to a farmer.