PETITION TARGET: NY Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chair and NY Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chair
Octopuses farmed on an industrial scale face horrific conditions — confined in overcrowded tanks and slaughtered for human consumption. New legislation in New York could prevent such cruel practices by banning octopus farming in the state.
Octopuses are remarkably intelligent and sensitive beings capable of solving complex problems, using tools, and even escaping from their enclosures.
Despite their sentience, industrial farming subjects octopuses to terrible cruelty. Shockingly, a company in Spain intends to breed approximately a million octopuses annually, expose these mostly nocturnal creatures to constant light during reproduction, and kill them by forcing them into ice-cold water — a method that leads to a slow and agonizing death.
The company has reportedly stated that it is pursuing this plan due to the rising interest in octopus flesh in Japan and the United States.
In a proactive move, New York State Senator Monica R. Martinez has sponsored a new bill — S7421/A8043 — that would ban octopus farming in the state and prohibit businesses from selling, possessing, or transporting aquaculture-raised octopuses.
With bans already enacted in Washington and California, and another active bill in Oregon, New York is now stepping up to prevent these farms from being established.
The large-scale farming of octopuses is cruel and unsustainable, and we must make it clear that it has no place in our society.
Sign our petition urging New York legislators to support this bill and protect these intelligent creatures from the horrors of industrial octopus farming.
