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The announcement that the Spanish multinational corporation Nueva Pescanova plans to launch the world's first octopus farm has rightly been met with outrage among scientists, conservationists, and caring people the world over. The European Food Safety Authority and the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition must ban octopus farming before it is too late.

Nueva Pescanova is already far along in its progress to open the farm, which is scheduled to open for business this summer and begin selling the bodies of octopuses in 2023. The operation is shrouded in secrecy, as Nueva Pescanova has refused to reveal any details as to the conditions the octopuses will be kept in. We know nothing about how the octopuses will be killed, what size tanks they will be kept in, or what they will be fed. As things are, the octopus will receive no government protection, as current EU animal welfare law covering farmed animals only applies to vertebrates.

Octopuses are sentient creatures — capable of feeling emotions like joy, pain, and fear — and are incredibly intelligent. They show clear evidence of experiencing moods, ranging from grumpy to playful, just as humans do, and show remarkable curiosity and problem-solving abilities. They are able to use tools, plan ahead, and even to befriend other species, as is made clear in the wonderful documentary My Octopus Teacher.

Happy packaging concealing the dismembered corpses of wild octopuses killed by Nueva Pescanova.

Nueva Pescanova is plundering octopus populations in the wild to profit from their brutally killed bodies, and only now that their numbers have fallen so dramatically from this company's and other companies' exploitation, has it decided to factory farm them as well. The company has the nerve to defend its plans by saying that by creating this factory farm, it will save wild octopuses, while it continues to drive them toward extinction, with no stated commitment to stop killing them in the wild or plans to stop others from doing so. This is a disgusting hypocrisy. Killing them after abducting them from the wild or after bringing them into a miserable existence through industrial farming while claiming to save their species in the wild is repugnant.

Additionally, octopuses are carnivores, so this farm will only result in increased fishing of already exhausted waters to provide sustenance for the company's hungry prisoners. Farming carnivorous animal species is even more ecologically wasteful than farming vegan or vegetarian species, and during this epic climate crisis should be reason alone to deny this project, when even farming of vegan animals is being scrutinized more closely.

There is nothing ethical or environmentally sound about keeping these sentient beings in tanks all their short lives, and then killing them brutally for a financial profit while further destroying the environment. No matter how you look at it, this farm is an evil that must be stopped.

Letter to Decision Maker(s) for reference:

Subject: No Octopus Farming! Refuse to Condemn Another Species to Industrial Farming Hell

As someone who is concerned with the suffering and fates of wild animals and one of over 250,000 In Defense of Animals supporters, I am writing to ask you to prevent the opening of the Nueva Pescanova octopus farm. 

The operation is shrouded in secrecy, as Nueva Pescanova has refused to reveal any details as to the conditions the octopuses will be kept in. For example, we know nothing about how the octopuses will be killed, what size tanks they will be kept in, or what they will be fed. As things are, the octopus will receive no government protection, as current EU animal welfare law covering farmed animals only applies to vertebrates. 

Octopuses are sentient creatures — capable of feeling emotions like joy, pain, and fear — and are incredibly intelligent. They show clear evidence of experiencing moods ranging from grumpy to playful, just as humans do, and show remarkable curiosity and problem-solving abilities. They are able to use tools, to plan ahead, and even to befriend other species, as is made clear in the wonderful documentary “My Octopus Teacher.” Accordingly, those most aware of the inner lives of octopuses are speaking out loudly against the proposal to keep them in barren tanks until they are killed. 

Nueva Pescanova is plundering octopus populations in the wild to profit from their brutally killed bodies, and only now that their numbers have fallen so dramatically from this company's and other companies' exploitation, has it decided to factory farm them as well. The company has the nerve to defend its plans by saying that by creating this factory farm, it will save wild octopuses, while it continues to drive them toward extinction, with no stated commitment to stop killing them in the wild or plans to stop others from doing so. This is a disgusting hypocrisy. Killing them after abducting them from the wild or after bringing them into a miserable existence through industrial farming while claiming to save their species in the wild is repugnant.

Additionally, octopuses are carnivores, so this farm will only result in increased fishing of already exhausted waters to provide sustenance for the company’s hungry prisoners. Farming carnivorous animal species is even more ecologically wasteful than farming vegan or vegetarian species, and during this epic climate crisis should be reason alone to deny this project, when even farming of vegan animals is being scrutinized more closely.

There is nothing ethical or environmentally sound about keeping these sentient beings in tanks all their short lives, and then killing them brutally for a financial profit while further destroying the environment. No matter how you look at it, this farm is an evil that must be stopped and I sincerely hope you will act to ensure that it never opens.

Thank you for your consideration of this urgent matter.

Sincerely,

Signed

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