Celebrate a Cruelty-Free Easter

Easter is a time of atonement, renewal, rebirth and redemption—it’s a time of new life. The symbols of Easter—furry baby chicks, lambs, butterflies, and colored eggs—are steeped in Christian faith, and most represent aspects of the suffering and sacrifice Jesus experienced between Palm Sunday and being crucified the following Friday.

Eggs hold the secret of new life, baby chicks symbolize the struggle to break out of the egg-shell and represents forgiveness, the baby lamb symbolizes the sacrifice made to God just like Jesus’ life was sacrificed for our eternal life, and the Easter bunny is an ancient symbol of fertility and new life. Many of these Easter traditions have been around for centuries.

But celebrating Easter does not have to bring harm, cruelty, suffering, exploitation and death to animals. This Easter commit to causing no harm and instead showing compassion for all animals by celebrating without the use of animals for food, Easter eggs, Easter baskets or gifts. This Easter choose to keep the day completely animal-free by choosing Easter eggs that are dairy-free; meals that are free of animal products and parts; and gifts that are all animal-free and do not exploit baby chicks, rabbits or ducks. Unfortunately, Easter is not a celebration for the millions of baby lambs, chicks, rabbits, pigs, cows, chickens, and turkeys—or any other animal that is made to suffer and die for our meals, pleasure or a gift.

Choose to honor and emulate Christ’s compassion for people and animals by showing mercy to animals on Easter. Leave them out of meals, Easter baskets and Easter celebrations. Try to live the biblical philosophy, “God’s mercy is over all His creatures,” by having mercy on innocent animals and the cruelty done to them.

Cruelty-Free, Easter Bunny-Approved Alternatives for Easter:

Never Give Baby Chicks, Rabbits or Ducks at Easter – Ever. Giving helpless, innocent baby chicks, bunnies or animals for Easter is a terrible idea—for them. Making a child happy for a day or two is not the way to teach respect for animals. The consideration of giving an animal at Easter is usually a selfish whim, and teaches children that animals are disposable and easily discarded. Not to mention it is cruel to the animal itself, causes them undue stress and misery, and they end up homeless. Children tire of their newness and when the novelty of this baby animal wears off, you have a lifetime of commitment ahead of you. Who will care for it? Can you commit to the animal for its entire lifetime? It’s always a bad idea giving an animal as a gift to anyone. Pets are a lifetime commitment of food, veterinary bills, medical care and attention every day. They should be carefully considered, prepared for, and chosen with the entire family present. Here’s why Easter is a bad idea for bunnies and rabbits, the dangers and misconceptions of giving baby birds as gifts and This Easter Leave Chicks and Ducklings on the Farm. ALTERNATIVES: Instead give children the “gift of compassion for animals” by visiting a local animal shelter on Easter, or visit an animal sanctuary for animals rescued from neglect and abuse. That is an experience they will never forget. Throughout the day, read some books about rabbits, baby chicks, ducklings or rescued animals to children, or go to a movie about animals, or rent a documentary about animals. Or you can give a stuffed animal that will give a child years of comfort and pleasure, and is a lot less work than a live animal. There are many ways to teach compassion for animals to children, but these ideas will make a positive impression that will last for years to come.
Replace Hen’s Eggs for Easter Baskets and Easter Egg Hunts – Consider using alternatives to eggs produced by battery-caged hens and the cruel egg industry. Instead of dying hard-boiled eggs, fill colorful plastic Eco-Eggs with vegan treats, candies and best non-dairy chocolates for gifts. Eco Eggs makes plant-based (versus petroleum-based) plastic colored eggs that you can fill with candy and they come in a variety of bright colors. EggNots makes a very realistic, eco-friendly ceramic egg that comes in six, 12, and 18 egg packs ranging from $9.95 to $21.95. The dye kit is sold separately for $5.95, and they also provide a recipe that you can make at home. Another option is to buy and paint wooden eggs. Wooden eggs are durable, can be stored and reused for years, and are just as simple to dye as dying regular hen’s eggs, here’s how. You can make beautiful paper-mâché eggs using balloons, tissue paper and a paintbrush. Here’s how to make paper-mâché eggs, or watch a craft tutorial on making paper-mâché eggs – Part 1 and Part 2. Here’s how to make fun polka-dotted eggs, and giant Easter eggs, beautiful tissue-paper eggs and elegant Easter eggs with Martha Stewart. Here are even more ideas to try, DIY paper-mâché eggs.These fun and colorful egg-alternatives can be stored and reused for years to come. Plus your kids will have a blast making them!
Replace Milk Chocolate with Vegan Chocolate – Look for dark chocolate that does not contain dairy milk, or these delicious options for vegan Easter candy, best vegan chocolate Easter eggs, and more vegan chocolate ideas. Moo Free makes gluten free, soya free or dairy free chocolate, vegan chocolate, and organic chocolate. Yum Earth makes vegan, organic Easter lollypops and holiday lollypops, gummy bears, licorice, hard candies and fruit snacks. Sweet & Sara makes delicious vegan, all-natural, handmade marshmallow treats for Easter and holidays. If you want to make your own vegan Easter eggs, see Jaime Oliver’s easy recipe and fill your Easter baskets with these cruelty-free Easter eggs. Here’s a list of the best vegan Easter eggs and chocolates for 2021.
Choose Meat Alternatives for Meals – Instead of serving Easter meals with a farmed animal at the center, choose a plant-based vegan roast for the holidays that is delicious, healthy and cruelty-free. See our turkey alternatives listed on our Guide to Cruelty Free Holidays. Here are 7 Effective Ways to Help Farmed Animals.
Choose an Animal-Free Menu – Go vegan this Easter! Here are some great vegan menus that are free of animals. See Oh She Glows Vegan Menu, Veg Kitchen Easter recipes, Vegan Heaven’s Easter recipes, 25 vegan Easter recipes from Vegan Richa, and 25 vegan Easter recipes from Keepin It Kind.
Raise Awareness About Why Cruelty-Free – Let Easter be an opportunity to raise awareness and teach kids why you don’t want to use hens’ eggs for Easter and why they are cruel. Use the holiday to teach young and old alike, why it’s so important for you to celebrate the holiday without hurting, exploiting, using or eating animals. If you’re not vegan already, consider carrying the cruelty-free theme for the entire holiday by not using any products that come from animals. Then after the holiday, consider committing to a vegan, plant-based future.

Why Alternatives to Hen’s Eggs at Easter

Dying hard-boiled Easter eggs? Consider reading about the daily life of an egg-laying hen. From the day they are born, baby chicks experience horrific suffering and misery:

New-born baby male chicks, one day old, are immediately macerated in a grinder, ground up alive while fully sensible to pain and fully conscious, everyday by the millions; they are violently killed just because they are not female egg-laying hens and are considered useless to the egg industry. They are a byproduct, “waste,” and unfortunate consequence of producing female egg-laying hens. This means almost 10 billion male chicks are crushed at birth. They are considered “waste” to the egg business.
Female baby chicks have their beaks painfully seared off without anesthesia so they cannot peck each other to death in their horrible overcrowded living conditions
Hens live their entire lives crammed into tiny wire “battery” cages that crush each other and cause suffering the rest of their terrible lives; hens cannot walk, move, turn-around, spread their wings, or run—like they were meant to and often crush each other and cannibalize each other due to intense stress
Hens are continually forcibly impregnated, and forced to painfully over-produce eggs, until their bodies are depleted and exhausted from unnatural egg-laying and nearly all hens suffer from extremely painful reproductive cancers, tumors, and their reproductive organs actually come outside their bodies, their organs cannot even stay inside of them from pushing too many eggs out in too short a timeframe.
Hens are genetically bred to “over-produce” the number of eggs that is natural for them. Hens will naturally produce about 15-25 eggs per year, but hens today are bred and forced and pushed to produce up to 300-350 eggs per year
Hens are deprived of every single natural physical and emotional behavior inherent to them, they are robbed of being a “hen”
Hens are intentionally starved to force their molting; they endure sickness, pain and injuries with no medical or veterinary care
Then they are slaughtered