Discussion»Questions»Food and Drink» I believe Vegans eat no animal by-products as well as no animals. Eggs would become chickens so I get that. Why stay away from dairy?
You know what Sbf? My mom had osteoporosis and so do I. It is nothing to joke about. She broke her hip and when her husband (my stepfather) hugged her once he cracked a rib. I know your answer is smartalecky. It's OK. I was hoping for enlightenment though. Thank you for your reply and Happy Tuesday.
An elderly friend of mine suffers from it, she can hardly walk. Vegans tend to ignore that. It's not those that suffer from the condition that I'm mocking, it's the vegans. Killjoys whose only enjoyment in life is making everybody else's as miserable as possible and being sanctimoniously smug about it.
Good morning Rosie. The short answer: It has to do with the big business of dairy farming and the inhumane conditions the animals are forced to live in.
The egg argument is bogus as most eggs don't become anything, they're not fertilized.
With dairy cows don't start lactating until they've been impregnated, GREAT for the veal market. A cow will continue to produce milk after calving for a long period of time provided she is continuously milked. But the flow does taper off and eventually stops (period of time and daily volume of milk depends on the breed of cow). Then the vealing process has to be repeated to make her "fresh" again.
My understanding from Vegan friends is.. that many of the practices whereby milk and milk derivatives are produced are cruel.. like having a cow mated so she can produce milk.. taking the young calf away too early.... keeping cows intensively.. etc etc..
Regarding eggs, I think that some may be connected with battery hen conditions. as in where chickens are kept inside in cages so that they are able to produce eggs intensively.. Vegans, (and many others!) believe this is cruel, it denies chickens a natural life, they have no room to move, they often peck themselves bald with stress, their feet become useless, and they are killed or got rid of at a very young age as their laying rate reduces.. so their lives are considered short and cruel. I think others believe that it's still exploiting the chicken taking their eggs...
With cows the insemination is done artificially these days, not via actual mating. But the outcome is no less cruel (I'll pass on thee veal piccata, thank you very much). And while there's now a trend for milking parlors to be converted to "self service" where the cow decides it's time to be milked and gets on the conveyor or carousel and is gently cleaned up and milked by a robot not too many farms have converted yet. Probably a cost issue.
Most eggs in the US are produced under even more cruel conditions than are meat birds. They're contained in cramped cages for their entire lifetimes. And just because it says cage-free, or free-range on the carton doesn't guarantee that to be true. Really sad and deplorable.
Slartibartfast 