Factory Farm In Canary Islands Will Slaughter 1 Million Octopi Every Year

Factory Farm In Canary Islands Will Slaughter 1 Million Octopi Every Year



Millions of animals are killed in factory farms each year. Many factory farms raise livestock animals for slaughter, but a new plan threatens to introduce octopus to the same fate.

According to Science Alert, Spanish company Nueva Pescanova has invested €65 million to build the world’s first commercial octopus farm in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, with the plan to begin selling octopuses in 2023.

Octopus are intelligent, sensitive animals. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK / THE SPEEDY BUTTERFLY
Octopus are intelligent, sensitive animals. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK / THE SPEEDY BUTTERFLY

As Reuters reports, Nueva Pescanova plans to supply the food and restaurant industry with 3,000 tons of octopi annually, intending to slaughter about one million octopi every year.

Typically, octopi are killed by clubbing, cutting into their brains without anesthetic, asphyxiation in a net, and freezing in ice, Compassion in Wold Farming reports. Scientists have recently been studying more gruesome methods of slaughter including giving octopi a chemical overdose, decapitation; or electrocution. According to In Defense of Animals, scientists have recently been studying more gruesome methods of slaughter including giving octopi a chemical overdose, decapitation; or electrocution.

Typically, octopi are killed by clubbing, cutting into their brains without anesthetic, asphyxiation in a net, and freezing in ice. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK / LINA
Typically, octopi are killed by clubbing, cutting into their brains without anesthetic, asphyxiation in a net, and freezing in ice. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK / LINA

Octopi are intelligent, inquisitive and sensitive. They learn to avoid sites where they have been hurt or threatened, and research shows they display strong negative behavioral changes when they are suffering.

“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, told Vice. “There is absolutely no doubt that they feel pain.”

As Reuters reports, previous efforts to farm octopus have struggled with high mortality, while attempts to breed wild-caught octopus ran into problems with aggression, cannibalism and self-mutilation.

An octopus farm in the Canary Islands would not only force thousands of octopi into a life of captivity and suffering but put more pressure on the ocean, disrupt marine ecosystems, and lead to the deaths of other marine life caught to feed the octopi, Deeper Blue reports.

Help us take a stand for the world's oceans and ban octopus farming in the Canary Islands. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK / ANDREA IZZOTTI
Help us take a stand for the world’s oceans and ban octopus farming in the Canary Islands. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK / ANDREA IZZOTTI

Octopus farming also contravenes the EU Strategic Aquaculture Guidelines because it will further deplete fish populations living in our oceans.

This article by Matthew Russell was first published by The Animal Rescue Site. Lead Image: PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK / DARIO SPAGNOLO – A PLANNED OCTOPUS FARM IN THE CANARY ISLANDS INTENDS TO KILL 1 MILLION OCTOPUS EVERY YEAR.


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