Ethics in replacing fertile eggs with fakes

[John_D]

Hi Dovena,

We have an aviary with a lot of rescued and non-releasable feral pigeons and unwanted homers. Most have paired up, so we have to check frequently for new eggs.

Because they are all kinds of temperaments, some are not too difficult when we check under them, but some are really fierce!

I'm quite used (and resigned) to getting a few bites. They do not like their space to be invaded by the creeping hand

(Actually, with our white 'house pigeon', I often have mock fights with him and end up with a few little red peck marks on my hand as a sign that he won - which he celebrates by turning circles and cooing proudly!)

Our plastic eggs have a ridge round the center, so when I do the check I have a plastic egg in my hand, put the other hand under the bird and feel if he/she is on a real egg or not and if so just slide the plastic egg under and remove the real one. They settle down again peaceably once they realize they still have an 'egg' (or two) under them. Some of the birds I can just gently preen their head and neck to reassure them.

John

[Birdmom4ever]

Like Treesa, I have a large flock and must replace eggs with wooden ones nearly every day. It's not difficult. You put the fake egg in your closed hand, slip the hand under the bird's breast and make the switch. That way they don't actually see you take their eggs. They still feel eggs under them. The eggs don't hatch, they give up after 20 days or so and start over. My pigeons are very happy the day I clean out the nest and provide them a new, clean nest bowl. It's as if they say, "Hey, baby, we get to mate again!"

If I didn't do this, I'd have an overcrowded loft and my pigeons would probably get sick. As others have said, you simply cannot allow them to continue raising babies forever. I know it's hard to toss those lovely eggs and yes, it still bothers me a little, but it would be far worse to raise more pigeons than I can properly care for. If you take eggs asap after the second one is laid, nothing has yet developed. It's a potential life, not a life. Birds are not like mammals, where cell development starts immediately with fertilization. Development of the embryo doesn't begin until incubation commences.

[Trees Gray]

"Cell development doesn't begin with fertilization with pigeons"

Couldn't have said it better myself, and I don't think we would be eating those organic chicken eggs either, if that weren't the case. Those eggs are usually fertilized, but there isn't an embryo. The farmer knows to pick them up daily, so there is no incubation! No brooding..no embryos!

Thanks birdmom!

treesa

[FlyByNight]

Originally Posted by Dovena

So you believe that it's not "living" from the moment it is laid? Then what about the deception aspect? Deceiving your trusting birds and tricking them into devotedly continuing to sit on their eggs, not knowing that their trusted owner has played a trick and substituted phony ones. And also, from the moment the viable egg is laid, how can we say that it is not alive? It contains the live germ. Isn't it all relative?

The question here is not whether what's in the egg is "living". Every fruit and vegetable we eat is living and we have no problem with killing them. The deciding question is whether what is in the egg is sentient, conscious, capable of experiencing the fact that it is alive, whether it is a life yet or just the material and instructions from which a life will be made.

If the nervous system and brain have not yet developed, there is no way for consciousness to exist yet, not even sleeping consciousness. That's why people here advocate replacing the eggs as soon as posible in the first few days, so that it will not yet have developed to the point where it becomes capable of feeling, of awareness. After replacing the eggs, you need to destroy them, also as soon as possible, by freezing or breaking, to make certain they won't continue developing.

I do feel sad when I replace real eggs with dummy eggs and destroy them. But I know I am not actually killing pigeons and that I am benefiting the other birds who must share their scarce resources with all arriving new lives.

- Laurie