PETITION TARGET: U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation Chair
Forced to share a single cubic meter of space with up to 14 others in a tank filled with harsh light, and then dunked in a tank of water that’s -3° Celsius (26.6° Fahrenheit) to slowly die — that would be the reality for clever, solitary octopuses if Spain’s first octopus farm plans catch on worldwide.
The OCTOPUS Act, reintroduced in the Senate by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Lisa Murkowski, would prevent this from happening in the U.S. and ban the import of commercially farmed octopus from other countries.
“Octopus are smart, sentient creatures that have no business cooped up on commercial farms,” Whitehouse said. “I’m glad to reintroduce this bill with Senator Murkowski to ban this practice and keep octopus wild in our oceans.”
As a member of the Ocean Born Foundation, Lady Freethinker has consistently called out the cruel and inhumane conditions octopuses would suffer in these facilities if farmed. LFT has asked the European Union to urgently put a ban on the creation of the commercial octopus farming, which would put an end to it before it even begins.
The United Kingdom’s Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act recognized octopuses as sentient beings. They’re highly intelligent, curious, and capable of developing short and long-term memories like humans.
The bill would prohibit any kind of octopus aquaculture or farms from being created, and would ban commercially-farmed octopus from entering the U.S. Importers would also need certification to prove they’re not bringing in farmed octopus.
Please sign our petition urging Congress to pass the OCTOPUS Act, making sure brutal octopus farms never become a reality in the U.S.
