Dairy and egg producers that are animal friendly

Question: Are there any dairy and egg producers that are animal friendly and don't kill the animals or their offspring? I am vegetarian and would like to know if I can get my dairy and eggs in a more humane, without the killing.

Answer from Belsandia:
To be honest you will be never find any dairy or egg production that does not result in killing sooner or later - and most of the times it goes along with substantial cruelty too.

The reason is simple:

To make a profit, dairy farms need female cows to be continuously impregnated in order to produce milk. Since not all baby calves are females who could be added to the dairy "production line", the male calves are those who will be killed right away - either for their meat as veal, or for their skin as leather. Sometimes they may be sold to a cattle ranch, which means their ordeal until slaughter time just takes longer. After just a few short years, the dairy cow will be slaughtered too, having lived a very small percentage of her natural lifespan. You can look here for more details.

It is not different for egg production. Only female chickens are needed for egg production, so all male chicks are immediately killed by either suffocating thousands of them at a time in large trash bags, or even worse, throwing them alive into a chopper. The hens who lay the eggs are rarely held in humane conditions, and are often so sick and weak that they succumb to the pressure of egg production way ahead of their natural time. Find out more about this here.

Now you could argue that animals raised cage-free, free range, or grass fed do not suffer such cruelties. It is true that they enjoy a somewhat better quality of life, but much of it is pure consumer deception, as you can see here in more detail.


No matter which way you put it - even if you get your milk and eggs only from the most humane, small, organic family farmer in town: if they do make a profit of the dairy and eggs, they do need to kill the animals eventually, and probably sell those "extras" (read: males) to some kind of slaughterhouse.

I have yet to find a farmer who offers his male baby calves and chicks up for adoption to a loving home!

But do not despair: I know it's an additional step, but it's actually really simple to avoid all killing, and simply live entirely plant-based. Not only will your body thank you for not adding the extra cholesterol, saturated fat, and food contaminants or bacteria (i.e. salmonella), you will also find no lack of protein or calcium in plants, as is often falsely assumed.

On top of that, you can save huge amounts of greenhouse gases if you choose to avoid animal products - all that in addition to no longer supporting animal cruelty and killing for food!

Here are some tips to start with egg replacers. Each option replaces one egg:

*1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 tablespoon of vinegar
*1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds and 3 tablespoons of water
*1/4 cup of silken tofu is very smooth
*1/4 cup plain of plain soy yogurt for recipes that call for moistness and density
*Half a ripe mashed banana adds a sweet flavor and is great for desserts
*1/4 cup non-sweet applesauce for moisture and also great to reduce fat
*1 1/2 teaspoon Egg Replacer from EnerG (potato starch and tapioca powder) plus 1 tablespoon of water

Any cow or other animal milk can easily be replaced with one of the following, no matter if you are drinking, cooking, or baking with it:

*soy milk
*rice milk
*almond milk
*hemp milk
*oat milk