[thieving_magpie]

Not to nitpick but how do you define animal cruelty? For instance, wouldn't increased farming lead to additional erosion and destruction of habitable land for many creatures? I've always heard that simply reducing the amount of animal products does not always correlate to an increase in benefits for wildlife. I'm asking this legitimately because I am ignorant about it.

[nikatwork]

Eggs in commercial products either come from free-range, barn, or cage chickens. The vast majority are from caged chickens, although this is slowly changing. Caged chickens are locked in a tiny cramped cage, sometimes strapped down with their beaks removed, and are usually pumped full of chemicals.

That's pretty fucked up, the only way this could not reasonably be considered cruelty is if you assert animals have no emotions and science seems to disagree with that notion. Free range is much better, the chooks can roam around in the open doing chicken stuff. I eat free range eggs.

Environmental damage from increased farming is only a major factor where specific habitats are being destroyed, eg Palm Oil in Indonesia. Even then, it's a lesser evil than directly harming individual creatures.