In recent years, the demand for octopus meat has increased significantly, and companies are seeking to master the art of captive breeding of these animals for mass production and sale.
A farm is planned to be built in the Canary Islands to raise octopuses for food. After the plan was leaked, the news sparked outrage among scientists and activists. According to the idea, the operator intends to kill up to a million animals a year by immersing them alive in ice water. This is reported by Business Insider.
Companies have been aiming to produce commercial scale octopuses in captivity for years, citing growing demand and the need to find more sustainable alternatives to fishing. But critics argue that these creatures are too smart and able to feel pain. They can’t just be grown indoors.
The farm in question will be located in the Canary Islands and run by Nueva Pescanova, a seafood company. In 2019, the company boasted that they were able not only to raise octopuses in captivity, but also to force them to breed for the first time.
“We will continue research to improve the welfare of octopuses by studying and reproducing their natural habitat, with the expectation that we will be able to sell aquaculture octopus from 2023,” CEO Ignacio Gonzalez said at the time.
In 2021, octopuses were recognized as being sentient, but now companies want to grow them for food.
Photo: Shutterstock
However, activists from the Eurogroup for Animals claim that the documents they obtained, which they shared with the BBC, show that octopuses will suffer a long and painful death at the proposed factory.
In a published report, the animal rights group said that Nueva Pescanova intends to kill about a million octopuses annually by immersing them in icy slurry. In addition, activists have criticized the conditions under which they will be kept prior to slaughter, saying the company intends to place single individuals in dense cages, up to 15 octopuses per cubic meter of water, in order to expose them to 24 hours of light in an attempt to speed up reproduction.
“This will cause unnecessary suffering to these intelligent, sentient and fascinating creatures that need to interact with their environment,” said Elena Lara, head of research at Compassion in World Farming.
The farm in question will be located in the Canary Islands and managed by Nueva Pescanova
Photo: Shutterstock
In response to criticism, Nueva Pescanova said it has high standards to ensure that animals are “correctly treated”. In particular, according to them, the slaughter of octopuses “provides for the correct treatment, excluding the infliction of pain or suffering to the animal.” However, experts disagree that submerging live animals in ice water is a pleasant experience.
Previously, Focus wrote that a man caught a giant Codzilla fish with a bait. Kyle Pool caught a huge Malabar cod off the coast of Exmouth in Western Australia. The man had a very hard time, because he did it with the help of an ordinary fishing rod.
It was also reported that off the coast of Louisiana, the boat was surrounded by hundreds of hungry sharks. According to eyewitnesses of the incident, there was a feeling that the surface of the water was literally “boiling”.
