Sign Animal Save Movement’s Petition To Help Stop Octopus Factory Farm On The Canary Islands From Brutally Killing Up To One Million Octopuses For Food Each Year

Factory farming is a cruel, barbaric, and unnecessary practice that callously kills millions of sentient beings each year. While mostly associated with the mass rearing and slaughtering of innocent animals for their meat, such as pigs, cows, and chickens, octopuses are also at risk, now more than ever.

That is because Spanish company Nueva Pescanova has invested €65 million to build the world’s first commercial octopus farm in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. That is more than $73 million U.S. dollars. The farm is reportedly opening this summer and will begin selling the bodies of octopuses in 2023.

Animal Save Movement is among a host of animal welfare organizations rallying to stop this travesty from taking place.

As a petition by the organization notes, based on the Plant Based Treaty, “we should not be building new slaughterhouses or animal farms, but relinquishing animal agriculture facilities and not making the problem worse.”

However, this octopus farm plans to kill an estimated one million octopuses each year to be used as food for human consumption. That equates to approximately 3,000 tons on octopuses.

According to the petition, while Pescanova has not yet shared how the octopuses will be killed, it is tragically common for these intelligent eight-armed inquisitive and sensitive wild-caught beings with three hearts to be “killed by methods such as clubbing their heads, cutting into their brains without anesthetic, asphyxiation in a net, and freezing in ice.”

Scientists have reportedly also been studying three new slaughter methods, including: Chemical methods – an overdose of magnesium chloride, ethanal and clove oil; Mechanical methods – destruction of the brain either by cutting between the eyes, or decapitation; and Electrical methods – electrocution of octopuses by passing an electric current through their body.

“It’s probable that the octopus’s reaction to pain is similar to a vertebrate. They can anticipate a painful, difficult, stressful situation and they can remember it,” Jennifer Mather, PhD, an expert in the behavior of octopus and squid at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, said in a statement. “There is absolutely no doubt that they feel pain.”

While octopus learn to avoid sites where pain has been inflicted on them, they sadly display strong negative behavioral changes when they are suffering from it.

“Farming octopuses is as unsustainable as it is inhumane,” sates the petition, which further explains that there is currently no legislation in Spain or the Canary Islands that protects the welfare of octopuses.

This octopus farm would put more pressure on the ocean, disrupt marine ecosystems, and kill other marine life who would have to be caught to feed the octopuses. Octopus farming also contravenes the EU Strategic Aquaculture Guidelines because it will further deplete fish populations living in our oceans.

Sign Animal Save Movement’s petition urging the governments of Spain and Gran Canaria to STOP this octopus farm from operating and ban eating octopus HERE!

You can help all animals and our planet by choosing compassion on your plate and in your glass. #GoVeg