Why don't vegans eat dairy & eggs?

DAIRY

To produce milk, cows are forcibly impregnated, usually via artificial insemination. After giving birth, their calves are taken away—usually within hours—causing severe distress for both mother and calf. They can often be heard crying out for each other for days. Male calves, being useless to the dairy industry, are often killed shortly after birth or sold into the veal industry, where they endure short, confined lives before slaughter. Female calves are raised to replace their mothers in the same cycle. 

Cows' bodies are pushed to their biological limits through selective breeding and constant milking, leading to painful conditions like mastitis (udder infections). Years of overproduction cause exhaustion, lameness, painful infections, and other serious health problems that make daily movement difficult or agonizing. Their bodies begin to break down long before their natural lifespan is reached. When their milk production declines, typically after a few years—despite a natural lifespan of 20-25 years—they’re sent to slaughter.

EGGS

Male chicks in the egg industry aren't suited for meat, so they're considered useless. On their first day of life, they’re either macerated (ground up alive), gassed, or even suffocated. Female chicks are sent to farms, where they spend their entire lives confined in metal cages no larger than a sheet of paper. They cannot fly, spread their wings, or even stand comfortably.

Under this extreme stress and boredom, hens develop aggresion and violence. Instead of providing more space, farmers prefer to cut off a third of their beaks (debeaking) with a hot guillotine. The beak is a highly sensitive organ packed with hundreds of nerve endings. Debeaking causes severe pain, and hens often show prolonged suffering—refusing to eat or drink and displaying signs of distress.

Wild chickens lay about 12 eggs per year. Through selective breeding and artificial lighting, industry hens now lay around 300. The constant egg-laying, combined with the stressful conditions, push their bodies to the biological limit and broken bones, osteoporosis, and malignant tumors are common. After two years, as egg production decline, hens are considered "spent" and slaughtered—despite a natural lifespan of up to 10 years.

Even on so-called free-range farms, hens are typically kept in crowded sheds with limited outdoor access and little stimulation. Male chicks are always still killed at birth. Female chicks are still debeaked. Hens still suffer from fractures and other health issues. And they’re still slaughtered once they're no longer productive.