New Hampshire Animal Rights League was on site at the NH SPCA’s annual PAWS Walk Fundraiser to answer the question: “What’s Wrong with Eating Eggs?”
Chickens make wonderful companions, and we encourage adopting birds from an animal shelter, such as the NH SPCA. But there are a number of problems with keeping chickens for the purpose of eating their eggs.
We explained to visitors that there is a great deal of suffering and death involved in producing eggs — even those from “free-range” farms, which are increasingly becoming the target of law suits for deceptive marketing.
Whether raising caged or free-range chickens, it is standard practice in the egg industry to:
- Obtain hens from hatcheries that kill all male chicks at birth. (All American hatcheries kill male chicks.)
- Cut or burn off hens’ sensitive beaks to minimize how much they can damage themselves and others.
- Crowd “free-range” hens so densely most never find their way outside.
- Send hens to slaughter when their egg production decreases and the shells thin, around age 7-12 months.
We showed visitors some of our favorite egg substitutes, gave away samples of Black Salt (Kala Namak), which can be used to add an “eggy” flavor to dishes, and handed out a brochure with more information, along with vegan starter kits.
Overall, it was a very productive day for NHARL, with lots of meaningful conversations and a bunch of new names for our mailing list.
