Unspeakable horrors, exploitation, and death: this is the reality of intensive farming that produces milk and eggs, just as in the case of meat and derivatives production. The idea that dairy and eggs could somehow be “more ethical” and more respectful of the animals involved is pure fantasy, as is the belief that choosing vegetarianism is sufficient from an ethical standpoint. But what exactly are we talking about?
Why don’t vegans eat eggs? The unethical downside of production
Let’s start by saying that thinking egg production, especially on an industrial level, is a harmless process for animals is far from reality. The images that animal rights associations literally steal from intensive farming speak of suffering and death. Over half of the hens raised in Italy for their eggs are part of the caged farming system, probably one of the absolute worst. Thousands and thousands of hens are crammed into tiny spaces, locked in battery cages so small they cannot even spread their wings. Cages are often arranged on several levels inside huge windowless hangars to make the most of the space.
As reported by Essere Animali, the hens often suffer from anemia due to the lack of sunlight. Some phenomena can cause problems from a hygienic-sanitary point of view: “Every day, dozens of hens die, often left in close contact with the living animals that cannibalize the corpses. A condition that creates health problems and negatively affects animal welfare.” The situation is slightly better for hens raised on the ground, although overcrowding and lack of freedom remain unchanged.
According to Essere Animali, the conditions of stress to which the hens are subjected, along with poor litter hygiene and limited movement, “lead to phenomena of feather pecking, a pathology that induces hens to pluck feathers from themselves or their companions. Thus, their beaks are trimmed shortly after birth to limit this problem.” All this, just to maximize egg production: in farming, each hen produces about 300 eggs a year, against the 100 or fewer it would produce in a natural context. The excessive exploitation shortens the life expectancy of these animals, who would live up to 8 years in nature. Still, in farming, they are sent to slaughter before the age of two, when their productivity begins to decline.
The issue of male chicks: horror upon horror
Even though it is a practice that will disappear throughout Europe – including Italy, which has set a limit of 2026 – it is still necessary to mention this issue among the most aberrant when talking about intensive farming. Both in egg-producing farms – where the “profitable” animals for obvious reasons are females – and in the chicken meat industry – where weak and too small animals are eliminated – male chicks are considered a waste.
For this reason, their killing through brutal and bloody methods is a common practice: as if they were objects of little value and not sentient beings, they have always been gassed, suffocated, or thrown into machines that grind them alive. An unspeakable horror, which some countries like France and Germany have already independently ended, but which – according to estimates by Animal Equality – leads to the death of 25 to 40 million animals considered “waste” every year in Italy alone.
The dairy industry? The worst of all
For some years now, thanks also to the work of animal rights associations, the meat industry has been “unmasked,” and consumers are aware of the exploitation and cruelty hidden behind this production. Not so for the dairy industry, which is probably one of the most deceptive of all: while advertisements show happy cows grazing, pampered and almost grateful to give their milk to humans, the reality is very different. Just like in any farming, animals are deprived of their freedom to live in conditions of extreme exploitation, becoming production machines at the service of humans.
Undercover investigations conducted over the years by animal rights associations such as Animal Equality, Essere Animali, and PETA show mistreatment, violence, and exploitation as the status quo within intensive farms. What is worse is that these are usually perfectly legal and legitimized situations. The dairy industry is a full-fledged industrial production system, no matter if it involves millions of sentient beings brutally exploited and deprived of their freedom and life. Like any industry, the dairy one also bends to market rules and adapts its production methods to them.
So then, if in nature, the average life of a cow would be 20 years, in farming, it inevitably reduces to 4 or 5 due to its conditions of extreme exploitation and diseases. The moment maintaining and exploiting a “dairy” cow is no longer profitable for the farmer, it is sent to slaughter. All this, keeping in mind that there are no “dairy” animals: any mammal, just like a human being, produces milk only after pregnancy; if there’s no pregnancy, there’s no milk. Moreover, the idea that a cow could explode if not milked or that this operation is of some relief for the animals is simply baseless.
Let’s not forget that calves are also involved in this industry: while males are sent to slaughter right away because – like male chicks – they are deemed useless for production purposes, females replace their mothers in the production chain in a continuous cycle.
Therefore, exploitation and death also exist in the dairy and egg industries, and there is no valid reason to consider the products of these production chains “ethically better” compared to meat.
