One of the questions I’m sure all vegans face regularly is but… what about free range eggs?‘ without even addressing the more controversial and complicated arguments about animals as property and the implications of that paradigm. It’s easy to explain that even free-range eggs are not cruelty and death free.
Male chickens do not lay eggs, but chickens are born roughly 50/50 male and female. Therefore the male ‘layer’ chickens are of no use to the egg industry. Male chicks are disposed of in horrific ways shortly after hatching*.
For every hen who grows up to be farmed for her eggs whether in a battery cage or a ‘free range’ facility there is a male chick who was thrown into a grinder.
When reading articles discussing the cross over between feminist theory and veganism it occurred to me that if these chicks had a voice, a copy of The Sexual Politics of Meat* and the cognitive abilities required they might cheep out in a tiny voice what patriarchy?