I have been vegetarian for over 13 years, getting towards half of my life. For the past year or so I have been considering taking this to the natural conclusion of veganism. Last year I gave up cows milk (although somehow it crept back in, I think it might go out again this year). I only eat organic dairy when I eat dairy.
My eggs come from a local farmer, who doesn't use organic feed but does meet all the welfare requirements for organic, so I am happy with that. I couldn't see the problem with eggs on a small scale... the hen lays the egg whatever, in fact I do believe, but this could be myth, that they lay more the happier they are, so there is motivation to keep the hen on your side! The eggs they ave laid are not fertilised and so were never going to be chicks. Obviously in large scale farming them some chicks are hatched in order to get new hens and the cocks are killed. There are also welfare issues in standard farming, and even in free-range farming colonies are often too big and hens are de-beaked. (If you don;t know about de-beaking you should google this).
I started thinking I would like my own chickens. They are funny anyway, I quite like to watch chickens. Plus if I kept them myself I could ensure good diet, good conditions and love. Plus I would get eggs and could eat them guilt-free.
Then yesterday I was reading about how tiring it is for hens to lay eggs, and how really if their egg is not fertilised they like to eat it themselves in order to regain some of the lost nutrients. So, even if i kept my own hens maybe i still shouldn't eat the eggs? Maybe I could collect a couple of the eggs and let them have the rest? Would that be a compromise?
Then what about the cat I want to get? Pet owning was discussed in a previous entry. I could hardly have a cat and chickens, that wouldn't be very fair on either of them.
I just watched a video of a man who keeps chickens because he doesn't want a pet like a cat or a dog that just eats food and gives nothing back. Maybe I should get a chicken or 2 instead? I would have to construct somewhere safe so the foxes don't get them though...
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I think taking some eggs and letting them eat the others is a good compromise. Chickens can make good pets too, they have been known to come into the house :)
ReplyDeleteWhilst I don't agree that dogs give nothing as a pet, the love they give you is worth a lot and it is free in abundance :) I can see what you mean about having a pet that is 'useful'.
So long as your garden and your run are secure, keeping chickens will mean you never have to buy eggs and you know your eggs are ethically farmed becasue you are doing it!
Oh, I didn't mean that I only want a "useful" pet... I do really want cats, I wrote a post before about the ethics of pets, in response to an article which said that pets were worse for the environment than driving a 4x4! It was the man in the video that said he only wanted an animal which gave him somehting back. I actually laughed when he said it as it sounded very much like he evaluated an animal's worth in terms of what he got out of it. I don't see it like that, I see it as symbiotic. I would like chickens as well as cats though, I just saw a site today where you can adopt ex battery hens. I would love to do that. My garden is not hen-ready yet though, and we do have foxes so I would need to be careful
ReplyDeleteI read with some interest your dilemma: Chickens OR cats? Happily, this is an easy one to resolve. We keep free range chickens and bantams and are also the pround owners of two Norwegian Forest Cats (a large, outdoor loving breed). Both cats and chickens rub along quite nicely together and there has never been any animosity between them. I believe that the chickens are just too large for the cats to consider them as prey.I would have no hesitation in suggesting that you can keep cats and chickens quite amicably side by side. Just to cap it off, we also have an English Springer Spaniel who pays no heed to the chickens either. Thus, we have the eggs and amusement from the chickens, companionship from the cats and all the love and exercise from the dog that we could wish for - A win / win / win situation!
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