Buying large eggs is cruel

This is a new one on me, from the Brits, but still...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 884068.ece

That is the view of the chairman of the British Free Range Producers' Association, who says that if you want to be kind to hens, you should eat medium, not large or very large, eggs.

“It can be painful to the hen to lay a larger egg,” Tom Vesey, who keeps 16,000 hens on 45 acres at Dingestow, Monmouth, told The Times. “There is also the stress, which is a big problem as it takes more out of hens to lay large eggs. It would be kinder to eat smaller eggs. Whenever I go to the Continent people eat medium-sized eggs yet here the housewife seems to be wedded to large eggs.”

Aaron Deacon wrote:This is a new one on me, from the Brits, but still...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 884068.ece

That is the view of the chairman of the British Free Range Producers' Association, who says that if you want to be kind to hens, you should eat medium, not large or very large, eggs.

“It can be painful to the hen to lay a larger egg,” Tom Vesey, who keeps 16,000 hens on 45 acres at Dingestow, Monmouth, told The Times. “There is also the stress, which is a big problem as it takes more out of hens to lay large eggs. It would be kinder to eat smaller eggs. Whenever I go to the Continent people eat medium-sized eggs yet here the housewife seems to be wedded to large eggs.”

So are they suggesting that you shouldn't buy eggs from the breeds of chicken who lay large eggs?

Waaah. Sparky was over 9 1/2 pounds at birth.

Mhays wrote:Waaah. Sparky was over 9 1/2 pounds at birth.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I mean you really can't control the egg size and that seems to be what they are saying. I am guessing that the author has a HUGE stake in medium size eggs and is trying to boost the sales.

Be kind to us woman who had large babies..........my son was almost 10 lbs at birth. Fiddledee on the chickens.

Ugh.

Aren't we allowed to just eat anymore?

Eggs are nicely tapered and have no heads. I'd say the chickens have it easy.

=R=

jesteinf wrote:Ugh.

Aren't we allowed to just eat anymore?

just what I was thinking,


however there is a certain segment of society that seems to be trying make people think eating is bad.

So, women should be encouraged to have premies, rather than carrying to term?

I must say that as a relatively staunch and oft-ridiculed animal rights proponent, even I find this suggestion bizarre.

Laying large eggs is the least of the poor creatures' concerns.

Yes that's true...from the too large eggs into the frying pan..........by way of the neck twist or chopping block.

Most recipes are based on using large eggs. Those bastards!

The chickens don't seem to be worried, otherwise they'd abstain or at the very least practice safe sex.

Pie Lady wrote:The chickens don't seem to be worried, otherwise they'd abstain or at the very least practice safe sex.

Well, to be fair, a hen doesn't have much say in the matter about laying an egg. It's gonna happen no matter what.

I wonder whether these folks would consider this less cruel or more?

Mhays wrote:I wonder whether these folks would consider this less cruel or more?

So eating aborted/"miscarried" eggs is a delicacy? I don't know why, but that makes me not want to eat at sunset when the Fast ends for the day. I know there is way grosser, but something about this makes my almost empty stomach churn.

You win. I don't want anyone to try and top that NY Times' piece. I also don't know how I missed it when it ran originally.

I like mine scrambled well.

Peace,

They aren't aborted/miscarried, they're eggs that were in the hen's laying pipeline when it was slaughtered. Since you don't slaughter laying hens all the time (on a commercial farm, they tend to last a year), it's a somewhat rare treat.

pairs4life wrote:

Mhays wrote:I wonder whether these folks would consider this less cruel or more?

So eating aborted/"miscarried" eggs is a delicacy? I don't know why, but that makes me not want to eat at sunset when the Fast ends for the day. I know there is way grosser, but something about this makes my almost empty stomach churn.

You win. I don't want anyone to try and top that NY Times' piece. I also don't know how I missed it when it ran originally.

I like mine scrambled well.

Peace,

I use to work with Filipinos and some of the women would bring in balut for lunch. Most of the times the eggs were pretty much developed. They would crack them off and sip the juice out of them and then eat the little chickens with a hot vineager sauce. They were always trying to get me to try one but I couldn't. It looked to f*@ked up.

A couple thoughts -

If there was too much pressure on the egg as it was being laid, wouldn't it break? The easiest way to break an egg is pressure from the sides.

I have always wondered what made the first human think that an egg was good to eat, anyway. Not only watching it appear, but knowing what came out of it, would have put me off!

npchicago wrote:I have always wondered what made the first human think that an egg was good to eat, anyway. Not only watching it appear, but knowing what came out of it, would have put me off!

It wouldn't have put you off too much if you didn't have much else to eat.

Pie Lady wrote:The chickens don't seem to be worried, otherwise they'd abstain or at the very least practice safe sex.

Chickens lay eggs whether or not the egg has been fertilized...or...um...the chicken has participated in the act of fertilization.

Hi,

My friend used to raise meat-chickens and laying-chickens. The meat-chickens were raised to weigh about 6-8 pounds in 12 weeks, then slaughtered.

The laying-chickens were an ongoing activity. The younger the laying-hen the smaller the egg. Gleaning from her experience, they were several years old before they laid large eggs. Depending on the breed, they have a productive life expectancy of 4-6 years. When she retired from caring for them, she sold them through the local auction house. Those hens probably lived a few more years productively laying eggs.

At one time, Rene G located a shop on the southside that sold slaughtered retired egg-laying hens for very little money. About the time I was willing to buy to experiment, they had gone out of business.

Regards,

Am I missing something? They're animals.

NAV MAN wrote:Am I missing something? They're animals.

Hey, I wouldn't want to force the chicken to lay the large egg - if my passing up large eggs allows the chicken to just keep it and not lay it then that's all good, right? I'm not sure exactly what the chicken DOES with it instead but that little tidbit of info was never addressed in the original piece.

Now, does anybody else drink only chocolate milk instead of white so that the cow isn't forced to go through that stressful process of refining the milk to be white before it comes out?