Question about eggs

[SawyerMarie]

I love animals- all creatures. I save the spiders in my home, I rescue snakes, I make homes for bees and respect all critters. I have not eaten meat or dairy or honey in 6 years. HOWEVER, I do have ducks and I eat their eggs. I have no males, they’re never fertilized. My ducks live the best life I can possibly give them, with access to a creek and a big maintained coop and the most nutritious food I’ve been able to find. Is it unethical to eat these eggs? I’m kind of at a loss of if it’s okay or not. Please help!

 

[rogerjolly]

Your predicament with ducks is no different to the backyard chooks argument. Eating eggs is not vegan for two main reasons:

Firstly, though you haven’t actually done any killing yourself, roughly as many male chicks have been killed as you have females.

Secondly, though again you have not done this yourself, over the centuries these birds have been deliberately bred to produce way more eggs by far than they would naturally do.

Hence you should not describe yourself as vegan.

From the purely ethical point of view you are where you are. Given your situation I would probably keep the ducks until their natural lifespans are over but I would definitely not replace them. Whether or not you eat the eggs should be secondary to that consideration.

But, again if you do, you should not call yourself a vegan. Perhaps nearly vegan might be more appropriate?

Roger.