I've seen a few vegans/vegitarians (hereafter known simply as vegans, though still referring to both or whomever fits the description at the time) on here and elsewhere who have chosen to be so because they consider it cruel to eat meat. (Note: this doesn't apply to those who simply cannot consume meat, eggs, or milk.)
One thing I've noticed is that what is considered cruel varies from person to person. The ones that don't eat meat because most meat sources are slaughterhouses where animals are fed the leftovers from the other animals, I don't blame you and I respect that choice, though there are other sources. Not all meat comes from slaughterhouses, you just have to know where to look (and you don't always have to pay more, depending on where you live).
The ones I have little to no respect for, though, are the ones who don't eat meat because either a) it was a living creature at one point, or b) it has eyes and therefore has feelings. To the first part I say: plants are living, too, yet you eat them. Whether you eat meat or not, you're still taking life. To the second....well....nature is cruel. Ever watch a cat that was never taught to kill by its mother? It can torment a mouse for hours. The mouse is probably more likely to die from a heart attack or its currently high blood pressure than the cat killing it. The Komodo Dragon kills by biting its prey once. The bacteria in its saliva does the work, often taking days to kill a large elk-like animal as the poison slowly works through the bloodstream.
What gets me more than anything, though, are the ones who don't eat eggs or milk for the reasons stated in the last paragraph. To that, I have to ask if you've ever been taught biology or farm science.
First up, eggs.
A hen will lay anywhere from one to four eggs per day (depending on breed, diet, age, etc), on average, regardless of whether or not a rooster is involved. To create life, even chicken eggs need fertilized, which means a rooster needs to be involved.
Eggs laid by hens in the absence of a rooster are the ones we eat and are never fertilized (although admittedly, there are occasionally a fertilized egg, but it's too late by the time it reaches the consumer anyway, since there is no external difference between fertilized and unfertilized eggs). Therefore, the eggs we eat would have never produced life. It's basically a....less messy....form of human ovulation - the egg develops but only goes so far if not fertilized.
Next, milk.
Here, again, we have a case of a food product that is not the result of the death of a creature. Cows and goats produce milk the same way humans do - hormones after birth that produce a nutrient-rich liquid for the offspring to consume until it can eat solid food. In the case of milk cows, the calf can simply be fed a suppliment (much like bottle-feeding a human child), or even allowed to feed from its mother, since, as many human mothers know, there is often an excess of milk produced.
That's not to say that cows and chickens aren't being raised in poor conditions, but the act of getting milk and eggs isn't cruel to the animal (in some cases, it actually helps the animal). Again, it boils down to finding sources that don't raise the animals on other animal parts or on in small cages.
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They actually treat cows like queens in the milk houses. Because a stressed out cow doesn't make good milk. So, they don't pin the cow up. They are allowed to wander out of the barn in the pasture and such. When it's time to milk, they go on their free will to where a machine milks them. I watched in a show on the discovery channel.
I have no respect for 'animal lovers' who eat meat. Because, they should realize that it's part of nature. You have to let nature take its course. Which is eat or be eaten. I don't eat red meat, because it makes me vomit. Literally.
Show me chicken that can lay 4 eggs per day. It would be the ultimate solution to many farmers.
For the rest your details on farming are quite incorrect. I just wonder why an animal that was killed in a slaughterhouse is not good to eat. An animal killed at a farm still needs to be killed. Animals are not raised in slaughterhouses, they are raised in farms. They are not fed with remains of other animals. that is not allowed in the EU and in the US to a lesser extend. If you disagree with vegans, make sure to do your homework. Vegans usually do their homework, but do not tell the whole story or make false conclusions, which then again are adapted by ignorant consumers.
Cattle have been known to be fed bone meal made from other cows as a protein supplement. This is the major cause of mad cow disease. And I think the author is saying that slaughterhouses are more likely to involve cruelty to the animal prior to killing. No, they aren't raised there, but they are held there, sometimes for several days before slaughter.
Read my blog for more information about a recent incident that occured in the beef cattle industry.
http://www.progressiveu.org/223614-watch-what-you-eat
"I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers."
- Kahlil Gibran
Fast Food Nation
You might want to consider reading it some time. It gives a fantastic, detailed (albeit somewhat gruesome) look into the meatpacking industry.
On the subject of chicken eggs, yes, I was mistaken on that part. Multiple eggs in a nest are more often the product of more than one hen laying in a nest, since they are more likely to lay where other eggs are already (this is a case where personal observation is disproven by other research). That said, it's probably a good thing that a hen can only lay one egg a day, since a farmer's bane is not lack of supplies, but surplus and falling prices.
As far as the meat packing industry goes, the factories are often unsanitary, which leads to disease in both the workers and the meat. And no, not all animals are raised on farms. If that was the case, there wouldn't be a big thing all over the place about free range animals and meat produced from them. No, the prime source of meat come from industry "farms" where the animals are raised in very close quarters and often don't have room to move (think puppy mills). They're given several antibiotics and steroids to keep from getting sick and to get as much meat as possible from them, and yes, they are fed meat products (often meal made from the meat and bones of the already packaged ones). Take a look at the chicken article I linked, there's a side-by-side comparison between an egg laid by a free-range hen and one by a "battery" hen.
And one last thing....if Vegans do so much research, why do they almost always come across as being under the impression that eggs would have grown into chickens?
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?