Animal rights activists are outraged: Spanish firm plans to kill a million octopuses a year

It is planned to establish a farm in the Canary Islands to grow edible octopuses. After the plan was leaked, the news sparked outrage among scientists and activists. According to this idea, the operator plans to kill up to a million animals a year by submerging them alive in ice water. This was reported by Business Insider.

Companies have been aiming to produce octopuses in captivity on a commercial scale for years, citing growing demand and the need to find more sustainable alternatives to fishing. However, critics claim that these creatures are very intelligent and can sense pain. They simply cannot be grown indoors.

The farm in question will be located in the Canary Islands and will be operated by a seafood company, Nueva Pescanova. In 2019, the company boasted that they were able not only to breed octopuses in captivity, but also to force them to breed for the first time.

“With the expectation that we will be able to sell aquaculture octopuses by 2023, we will continue to seek to improve the well-being of octopuses by studying and reproducing their natural habitat,” CEO Ignacio Gonzalez said at the time.

But Eurogroup for Animals activists claim that documents they have obtained and shared with the BBC show that octopuses will die long and painfully in the planned factory.

In a published report, the animal rights group said Nueva Pescanova plans to kill about one million octopuses annually by dipping it in icy slurry. Additionally, activists criticized the conditions under which they would be kept before slaughter, saying the company plans to put single individuals in dense cages at 15 octopuses per cubic meter of water to expose them to light for 24 hours. in an effort to speed up reproduction.

“This will cause unnecessary suffering to these intelligent, sensitive and fascinating creatures that need to interact with their environment,” said Elena Lara, head of research at Compassion in World Farming.

In response to the criticism, Nueva Pescanova said she has high standards for ensuring that animals are “treated the right way”. According to them, the slaughter of octopuses in particular “provides appropriate treatment other than causing pain or suffering to the animal.” But experts disagree that immersing live animals in ice water is a pleasant experience.

Previously Focus He wrote that the man caught a giant Codzilla fish with bait. Kyle Pool caught a large 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 the boat was besieged by hundreds of hungry sharks off the coast of Louisiana. According to eyewitnesses of the incident, there was a feeling that the water surface was literally “boiling”.