Who tortures a cat for a cookie?
Hardly anyone would agree to torture a cat or a hamster for one hour so that they could receive one cookie. But vegetarians do exactly that to chickens: a chicken is mistreated for one whole day for every egg. So anyone that decides to eat a cookie based on a recipe that uses one egg for two dozen is accepting that a chicken must suffer for one hour. For one egg a day (whether in a cup, a pan, noodles, bread, cake or wherever they are concealed), a hen suffers for a whole year, then only to be killed. Just to state an example, the eggshells alone require more calcium to produce than can be absorbed from their food, causing the calcium to be abstracted from their bones. These animals are a product of cruel breeding, and would naturally only lay 6-12 eggs per year for reproduction.Meanwhile, even the German Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Renate Künast, has described it as a scandal that male chicks are killed "simply because they cannot be used as egg-laying hens" (German Press Agency, 28 June 2001). In the average human lifespan, 70 hens will be mistreated and slaughtered and an equal number of male chicks will be minced alive or gassed immediately upon hatching.
To these animals, it makes no difference whether they will be tortured and killed for the eggs of a vegetarian or so that their bodies can be eaten. If it is already known to the German Consumer Minister and a chick gassing chamber has already been shown in an episode of the popular German crime drama Tatort ("Hahnenkampf", ORF, first transmission 20. 04. 1997) as a tool used to murder a human, then it would be quite ignorant to not be aware of the problem**). Every individual can be aware of it, if not in detail, then at least the basic facts. The "we didn't know what was happening" mentality requires a massive displacement process. And those who do know must also be clear on what vegetarians have to answer for.
(next: Who tortures an elephant for a cheese sandwich?)
May 31, 2010