PETITION TARGET: Oregon Governor Tina Kotek
Octopuses, ingenious animals with advanced cognition, could soon spend their entire lives in overcrowded tanks and then be painfully killed — all for the sake of human appetite.
Highly intelligent, sentient beings capable of problem-solving, tool use, and even escaping from aquariums, octopuses are amazing creatures. Their unique anatomy reveals a vast distribution of neurons throughout the animal, even allowing an octopus’ arm to have a reaction after being cut off. Further, they are able to use a “taste by touch” system to navigate their environment, research finds.
Sadly, a company in Spain is planning to breed and butcher roughly one million octopuses each year. It also intends to kill the octopuses by submerging them in freezing water, which will cause a slow and agonizing death.
According to the company, the demand for octopuses is set to increase, so it may only be a matter of time before more commercial farms are proposed.
Last year, Washington and California became the first states to ban octopus farming, and now Oregon has introduced a bill to do the same.
“…There are efforts underway to raise octopus for food in Spain and in Hawaii,” Rep. Zach Hudson, chief sponsor of the bill, stated. “No such operation has yet come to Oregon, but the purpose of this bill is to stop that before it has a chance to start.”
Octopus farming on an industrial scale, like the facility proposed in Spain, is unethical and unsustainable, and we must send a strong message that it is also unacceptable.
These sensitive, complex animals deserve protection.
Sign our petition urging the Governor of Oregon to support this bill to protect these intelligent creatures from being farmed.
