Eggs, is it even possible to have a serious topic about this?

In my opinion yes, if we talk about the welfare of chickens.
Having lived in the UK for a few years I bought a lot of eggs, a few hundred per year I'm guessing, it was not until I saw a documentary on TV I realised there is actually a huge difference between eggs and eggs, more specifically, well cared for chickens vs mass production 'animate utilities.'

Supermarkets have several different types of eggs available to customers, the quickest type to disappear from the shelves are the 'economy' cartons, up to fifteen eggs in each, and cheap. These cartons, welfare of the chickens, none. The chickens with the 'economy' eggs, are caged, often in very confined spaces, and with no real humane regard to their treatment, they are there simply to provide the human population with eggs. Most of us love eggs and to save money, so we buy loads of them, and therefore this mass production type trade can go on, because we keep providing them with business.

An argument I've heard from people when discussing this topic, it's only chickens!, well, we humans according to Christianity and other religions are meant to be the pinnacle of beings on this planet, and therefore one would think we should treat even chickens with respect. The most common reason we don't treat them or other animals with respect is because they can't talk back due to a more simplified brain; if they could you'd be damn sure chickens in this case, would say, oi, leave those eggs where they were and back away slowly.

I believe in the old Native Indians philosophy of treating animals with respect, if they killed a deer, they would thank that animal for letting them eat it, and the same sentiment went for their entire culture, at least, the peaceful tribes.

Am guessing some will think now, well we eat animals, how is that respecting life? will talk about that another time, that is a very heated topic, and I think one that will probably never reach an amicable consensus, but it is worth discussing anyway.

I enjoy a good debate from time to time, so if you've got differing opinions to my views, then please fire away.

/Mercury