Google Removes Egg From Salad Emoji and Goes Vegan. Here’s Why It Matters.

According to Eater, in a recent update for Android P devices, Google added 157 new emojis and revised several existing ones. For one revision, Google removed the egg from the green salad emoji.

Google’s head of design for emojis, Jennifer Daniel, tweeted today:

While this may not seem significant at first, it actually sends a huge message. You see, eggs are not a victimless product—far from it. The egg industry is responsible for some of the cruelest forms of animal abuse imaginable.

At today’s egg factory farms, birds are kept in deplorable conditions. Confined in battery cages, hens exploited for eggs are each given less floor space than the size of an iPad to live out their lives. They never breathe fresh air or feel grass beneath their feet. Instead, they live in filthy warehouses, trapped inside cold, barren cages.

Additionally, hens are mutilated without painkillers. When the birds are just a few days old, they have their sensitive beaks seared off with a hot blade. What’s more, because male chicks can’t lay eggs and won’t grow quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat, they are often killed within hours of hatching. Some are ground up alive while others are gassed or suffocated.

Watch this Mercy For Animals undercover investigation at Gray Ridge Egg Farms, one of Canada’s largest egg producers.

After two years of torment, when their egg production slows down, hens are sent to a merciless slaughter.

Removing the egg from the salad emoji will hopefully bring us one step closer to dispelling the myth that eating eggs is an innocuous choice. And for those of us who grew up eating eggs, there is a slew of amazing plant-based recipes that have all of the taste and none of the torture. And baking without eggs is a snap!

So what are you waiting for? Protect animals and your health by switching to a vegan diet. Click here to get started. And check out our Pinterest page for thousands of recipe ideas.