The simple answer is no.

Honey: Some bees will be crushed or die from something else during the honey harvest, no matter how careful you are. Result - not vegan.

Eggs: Hens, when left alone, will typically eat their own unfertilized eggs for nutrient replenishment. The eggs are not yours to steal. Theoretically, if you had a hen you had rescued from a slaughterhouse (and not bred intentionally to keep as a pet) who was laying eggs at an extraordinary rate and couldn't eat them all herself, you could justify taking an egg or two from her here and there. But that's an extreme situation that is completely unrealistic on a wider scale. Result - not vegan.

Milk: Cows only produce milk if they're forced to give birth at least once a year. The breeding itself is wrong, and then once the calf is born, the baby either has to be removed from the mother completely, or the calf is forced to share his or her milk with humans who steal it. Result - not vegan.

Just because there may occur some extraordinary circumstances once in a while where the supply of animals' secretions exceeds their own demand does not justify theft by humans. It also contributes to the idea that animals can be treated as resources and/or property, so it stifles the paradigm shift that abolitionist vegans have been striving to achieve for years. It's a slippery slope that leads to human rationalization to justify the creation of more "resource" animals through forced breeding.

I want you to know that this scene also stands out in my mind... I watched the trailer today forgetting the dog was in that part..
It is what I think of all the time...that dog.. what did that dog ever do?
Anyway, just want you to know it hit me hard too... I joined this forum just to comment, even though I have nothing to say: nothing anyone said could erase the image from my mind...or make me feel better about it..

I put up the Earthlings link on my facebook page earlier.... Got 5 people who checked it out and commented...
Mostly, no one watched further than the trailer, but I hope those images stay with them and stir up questions in their minds...
It's what I did today... I can't go back and stop those men on the street with the dog, but if we share this story with others, it can help everyone in the future... I feel like you cannot even really make a choice until you see this movie..now when you make a choice, you know exactly what you are choosing, no more denying it...

As far as honeybees go: I read It takes a bee it's entire lifetime to produce 1/12 of a tsp of honey...and that is their winter food!!

Nina

hmmm.....I dont agree about the eggs. You have to feed the chickens. Its a trade. You care for them, love them, feed them lots of good food, mix them up their mash with warm water on a cold morning, feed them scraps, I even cook them rice and vegetables.
Then go down and collect an egg, give a pat, say "Thank you chicken. I will have this one and you can have the rice and vegies I have cooked for you."
That is not theft. That's a trade and certainly not a trade where it is "my life or yours"

I mean, what the logic applied to this being theft you may as well go all out and become a fruitarian becuase you shouldnt be "stealing" seeds from trees, or eating crops and when animals should have the right to the same respect you would give a human then why not the plants?

How, exactly, do these chickens who are so happy and willing to trade their eggs for rice and vegetables come into existence in the first place? Are you breeding them? Are they wandering into your home? Are they flocking to you because word has spread that you cook the best rice and veggies in the neighborhood?

Hi beansidhe0,

I will try to get back at you as soon as possible (last night there was an earthquake here in Chile, so I have to do some stuff right now) and share with you my views on why I think that the slaughter and 'mass factory farming' of other animals is not the main problem here, but just one of the most awful manifestations of a bigger problem which is the very notion that we can USE other animals and treat them as our commoditties; that we can enslave and own them.

I will do my best to answer the plants question too.

Take care,

Samuel.

oh please.................

No one wanted them and they were otherwise heading for the chopping block so I took them.


I have reached a conclusion. There is no logical reason not to eat eggs from well loved and cared for back yard chickens. Firstly it is not stealing. The chicken isnt going to eat the egg as chickens only do that when they are severely malnourished.
The egg is never going to hatch, since there is no rooster.
It is essentially a waste product and of no use to the chicken.
if left in the nest the chicken may decide when they are boody to sit on them for a while but when nothing happens they up and leave the nest leaving the eggs there to go rotten.
If you do not remove eggs (which I have done) this also happens, they just find somewhere else to lay. The chicken is not forced to lay an egg everyday. Chickens have seasons just like other animals and will not lay at certain times.
It doesnt break with any ethical issues surrounding the chicken at all.

Health reasons...well health was not why veganism came about in the first place, it was ethics and beliefs. And slowly things are changing in that regard with cage free eggs becoming more and more the norm, the plight of pigs becoming more published.
Now we just need to keep working on the other issues.

WHich brings me to the conclusion I do understand and that is, without much scientific or logical reason, some people have decided that it does not sit well with them to eat eggs based purely on a personal belief system. Much like religion. And I actually understand that.
SO, I think that I feel comfortable and no guilt being a vegetarian who eats "home grown" eggs, wears wool and feeds my dog meat.