$JES 904 Compendium of Jainism (Jain Academic Bowl Manual 3rd Edition)

Author(s): JAINA Education Committee
Publisher: JAINA Education Committee

Page 176

CONDUCT
C08 - Application of Nonviolence
We Jains are grounded in spiritual values and strive to align our actions with our beliefs. The natural extension of our strong belief in Ahimsä should be taken beyond just foods. Eggs
These days, the poultry industry has been marketing eggs as vegetarian food. It claims that since the eggs are unfertilized, they would never hatch into a chick, and hence they have no life. It is true that the eggs produced by the commercial poultry industry are unfertilized. However, they cannot be deemed as cruelty free. By consuming eggs we support an industry that involves a significant amount of cruelty and inhumane treatment of birds. Different birds are used for egg production. Chicks are hatched at hatcheries, raised in pullet barns for about 19 weeks, and then transferred to the "laying hen barn" for their egg production life. The average laying hen produces more than 300 eggs a year. Hens begin egg production at five to six months of age and continue to lay eggs for at least 12 months. Wild birds lay only in the springtime when daylight hours are increasing. To stimulate "laying hens" to lay eggs all year round, bright lighting in the barn is maintained for 14 to 17 hours a day. Small groups of three to five hens are kept in cages. The cages are built at an angle so eggs automatically roll out for collection and are gathered twice a day. They are then packed and refrigerated on the farm, ready for delivery to the grading station. In the U.S., approximately 300 million egg-laying hens are confined in battery cages. These are small wire cages stacked in tiers and lined up in rows in huge warehouses. The USDA recommends giving each hen four inches of 'feeder space', which means the agency would advise packing 3 hens in a cage just 12 inches wide. The birds cannot stretch their wings or legs, and they cannot fulfill normal behavioral patterns or social needs. Constantly rubbing against the wire cages results in severe feather loss and bruises and abrasions. Practically all laying hens have part of their beaks cut off in order to reduce injuries resulting from excessive pecking, (an aberrant behavior which occurs when the confined hens are bored and frustrated). Debeaking is a painful procedure which involves cutting through bone, cartilage, and soft tissue. Once they are debeaked, they have difficulty drinking water. Laying about 300 eggs per year, the bodies of these hens are severely taxed. They suffer from "fatty liver syndrome" when their liver cells, which work overtime to produce the fat and protein for egg yolks, accumulate extra fat. They also suffer from what the industry calls "cage layer fatigue", and many die of "egg bound" when their bodies are too weak to pass another egg. After one year in egg production, the birds are classified as "spent hens" (hens that cannot lay anymore eggs). They are then sent off to slaughterhouses. They usually end up in soups, potpies, or similar low-grade chicken meat products where their bodies can be shredded to hide the bruises from consumers. The hens' brittle, calcium-depleted bones often shatter during handling and/or at the slaughterhouse. For every egg-laying hen confined in a battery cage, there is a male chick that was killed at the hatchery. Because egg-laying chickens have been selected exclusively for maximum egg production, they don't grow fast enough or large enough to be raised profitably for meat. Therefore, male chicks of egg-laying breeds are of no economic value. They are literally discarded on the day they hatch usually by the least expensive and most convenient means available. They may be
thrown in trash cans where they are suffocated or crushed under the weight of others. Pearls
In the olden days, lustrous and beautiful natural pearls were a symbol of wealth and pride for those who owned them. For those who care about Ahimsä, the pearl is a symbol of pain and suffering. Pearls are a response to an irritation caused by a foreign particle. It naturally occurs when sand or a bit of a shell is accidentally trapped inside the oyster. It is like having a foreign particle in the human eye, causing irritation until it is removed. Generally, the oyster cannot expel the foreign particle. To reduce the pain, it secretes a substance called nacre, which surrounds the particle. After several
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Compendium of Jainism - 2015