Quote:
Originally Posted by cotonpal
The moral high ground of vegans is based on the erroneous belief that they are eating in the most nutritionally healthy way as well as the most environmentally sound way, both of which are untrue. It is a position that is both arrogant and ignorant and has the potential to do great damage to people and the environment, yet so many people have fallen for it. There is nothing “moral” about being a vegan. It is certainly not moral to advocate a nutritionally unsound diet nor is there anything moral about a holier than thou attitude.
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They are also of the belief that using or consuming ANY product of animal origin, including eggs, dairy products, or honey, and that human use of any of those is somehow harmful to the animal.
Again, that is untrue.
Eating an unfertilized egg in no way harms a hen or kills a potential chick since an unfertilized egg will not hatch. The hen will produce eggs at the rate of 1 (and sometimes 2) per day during laying season (long daylight hours). Fertilization of the egg only takes place in the oviduct, not after the egg is laid. If there have been no roosters around to mate with the hens, then the hens are not going to lay fertilized eggs. In order to avoid harming "potential chickens", all they need do is to purchase eggs which are not fertilized. Most eggs sold are not fertilized, and that's not just referring to those produced by mass egg laying operations, but also most cage free, pastured, and organically fed eggs. You can tell the eggs are not fertilized, because when buying fertilized eggs, the egg carton will proudly display that they are fertilized eggs, and you will pay a premium price for those eggs, because the chicken farmer is not going to keep a rooster around if they aren't earning anything extra for the trouble of keeping a rooster.
Cows produce far more milk than a calf can possibly consume. If the excess milk is not milked off, the cow runs a very real risk of developing a nasty, painful, and potentially even deadly case of mastitis. If the cow dies, that calf will no longer have it's mother's milk. You're actually doing the cow and the calf a favor by using the excess milk she produced, and the cow will feel great relief at having her udder emptied of the excess milk. Having grown up on farms, I've seen the cows make their way to the milking barn - they want to be milked so that they can be relieved of all that excess milk. This of course assumes that the cow is not separated from the her calf as soon as the calf has consumed all benefit from the colostrum, with the calf put on a calf formula so that all the cow's milk can be sold - that of course is not the best thing for the calf. If you find it offensive for a calf to be separated from it's mother before the calf is naturally weaned, then make sure the milk comes from herds that are allowed to wean naturally. (There are other aspects to consider, such as precocious milkers - cows who continue to produce milk long after the calf has been weaned. Same thing can happen with goats and sheep. My SIL had a goat that continued to produce copious amounts of milk for years after her last kid was weaned. It's much kinder to allow the goat to continue milking the goat until her milk supply dries up naturally than it is to force the milk to dry up)
Honey bees produce far more honey than they can possibly use. But the bees don't realize that, so they will continue to create honey combs and fill the honeycomb cavities with honey as long as they have a place to create a honeycomb, whether they will ever use that much honey or not. The bees won't suffer if you don't use the excess honey - but neither will they suffer if you do use the excess honey.
I believe a lot of Vegan beliefs about what's harmful to animals is based purely on ignorance of animal husbandry practices.