On Thu, 17 May 2018 03:32:54 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton wrote:

> On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 8:16:17 PM UTC-4, wrote:
>> On Wed, 16 May 2018 16:42:49 -0400, jmcquown >
>> wrote:
>>
>>>Just so happens my dinner tonight will be kinda-sorta vegetarian.
>>>That's if you define the label as someone who eats eggs & cheese.
>>
>> If you claim to be Vegan for morality reasons,
>> it makes NO sense to eliminate milk products and eggs,
>> as those are similar to fruits and vegetables,
>> where you eat the 'seeds' of the plant, which are renewable.
>
> Vegetarian: doesn't eat anything that kills an animal
> Vegan: doesn't eat anything that inconveniences an animal

Which brings up a question: If chickens were wild, what would happen
to their almost daily, unfertilized eggs? Would they just kick them
to the side? Or would roosters make sure that they were fertilized
every day, keeping the hens in a constant state of childbirth?

And what would happen to a cow, that for whatever reason, had no
calves to milk her swollen mammary glands? (and doesn't live in
Greenville, New York)?

The chicken are not inconvenienced laying an egg every day,
fertilized or not. And the cow would probably feel much better if
she were milked.

-sw

On 5/17/2018 1:42 PM, Sqwertz wrote:
>
> And what would happen to a cow, that for whatever reason, had no
> calves to milk her swollen mammary glands? (and doesn't live in
> Greenville, New York)?

Extreme pain if they can't be milked. No calves to suckle? MOOOOOOOO -
ouch!

Jill

In article >, ost
says...
>
> On Thu, 17 May 2018 03:32:54 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>
> > On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 8:16:17 PM UTC-4, wrote:
> >> On Wed, 16 May 2018 16:42:49 -0400, jmcquown >
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>>Just so happens my dinner tonight will be kinda-sorta vegetarian.
> >>>That's if you define the label as someone who eats eggs & cheese.
> >>
> >> If you claim to be Vegan for morality reasons,
> >> it makes NO sense to eliminate milk products and eggs,
> >> as those are similar to fruits and vegetables,
> >> where you eat the 'seeds' of the plant, which are renewable.
> >
> > Vegetarian: doesn't eat anything that kills an animal
> > Vegan: doesn't eat anything that inconveniences an animal
>
> Which brings up a question: If chickens were wild, what would happen
> to their almost daily, unfertilized eggs?

The wild ancestor of modern day chickens, the red junglefowl, produces
around a dozen eggs each year. Through decades of breeding, laying hens
have been bred for very high production of eggs.


Would they just kick them
> to the side? Or would roosters make sure that they were fertilized
> every day, keeping the hens in a constant state of childbirth?

Roosters have absolutely zero effect on the rate of egg production.

Even fertilised, the eggs wouldn't hatch unless a hen brooded on them
for three weeks, and most modern breeds of hen either don't go broody at
all or only hatch one clutch of a dozen eggs a year, just like wild
fowl. As ground-nesters, broody hens and their eggs in the open are easy
prey to predators.

> And what would happen to a cow, that for whatever reason, had no
> calves to milk her swollen mammary glands?

Like any mammal, when she isn't milked or suckled the milk supply
dries off, though if milking ceases abruptly she will probably develop a
very painful mastitis first. Lactation won't recommence until another
calf is born, and many dairy farms use AI rather than a bull. So in a
EOTWAWKI scenario, left to fend for themselves most dairy herds would
develop mastitis, dry off, then starve to death next winter when grass
stops growing.

Janet UK