Stop Intensive Octopus Farming Before It Begins Pledge

We, the signatories, pledge to boycott and renounce The Canary Islands until the octopus farm proposal is unequivocally called off, and octopuses are recognized as sentient beings in Gran Canaria.

The Spanish company Nueva Pescanova has invested a staggering $65 million to build the world's first commercial octopus farm in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, which would result in the death of a million octopuses to be eaten each year.

Nueva Pescanova acknowledges it plans to farm the famously solitary creatures in cramped conditions, housing multiple octopuses—an estimated 10 to 15—for each cubic meter of tank space. Placing territorial nimble hunters in unnatural environments commonly leads to stress and extreme behaviors, such as cannibalism, injury, and death. Compassion In World Farming, which has examined the octopus farm proposals, estimate that 10-15% of octopuses housed under the plans will die before they even get to ‘slaughter age.”

The appalling method of killing these sentient and extraordinary beings is an excruciating one. The intensive farm plans to immerse the octopuses in near freezing -3°C (26.6°F) water—essentially, an ice slurry designed to kill slowly and painfully. Prof. Peter Tse, a cognitive neuroscientist at Dartmouth University, points out that it would be “very cruel” and “should not be allowed.”

PLEASE ACT NOW AND SIGN HERE:

This is an urgent plea to the Governments of Spain and Gran Canaria to intercede and STOP immediately the construction of the world’s first octopus farm because it is morally indefensible, unsustainable, and ecologically destructive.

Recognize octopuses as sentient beings in Gran Canaria as the UK did, in its Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, and BAN eating octopuses.

Boycott The Canary Islands until this monstrous octopus farm proposal is stopped.