Urgent: take action to stop the world's first octopus factory farm

One of the most intelligent and emotionally complex species on earth is set to become the newest victim of the horrors of factory farming if multi-million-dollar Spanish Corporation Nueva Pescanova is not stopped. Nueva Pescanova is planning to open a commercial octopus farm in the Canary Islands in 2023, where over 1 million captive octopuses will be kept and killed every year for human consumption.

A recent review of hundreds of scientific studies found strong evidence that octopuses are sentient beings who can experience complex emotions such as pain and joy. The researchers who compiled the data also concluded that it would be impossible to farm these animals in a humane way. Thanks to this groundbreaking report the United Kingdom recently amended its current Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill to recognize octopuses as sentient beings that are therefore entitled to welfare protections.

Octopus sentience is sadly not yet formally recognized in the EU which means that if Spain opens the world’s first octopus factory farm then these precious creatures will likely live short, horrible lives in torturous conditions with no legal protections.

Octopuses’ anatomy leaves them vulnerable to injury if they are kept in close confinement as they do not have skeletons to protect them, and as they are solitary, territorial creatures there is concern they may become cannibalistic in captivity.

Nueva Pescanova has been disturbingly tight-lipped about how the animals will be kept, what kind of food they will eat and how they will be slaughtered. But now, documents leaked in March 2023 indicate that the proposed facility would subject octopuses to cruel conditions and a painful, stressful, and slow death.

In addition, these animals, accustomed to living in solitary, dark conditions, will now be forced to live in cramped tanks under 24 hour light. Octopuses’ anatomy leaves them vulnerable to injury if they are kept in close confinement as they do not have skeletons to protect them, and as they are solitary, territorial creatures there is concern they may become cannibalistic in captivity. Moreover, octopus change their behavior in the light due to fear of predators, so they will constantly be more stressed. Due to these conditions, Nueva Pescanova estimates in its documentation that there will be "a mortality rate of 10-15%," a horrifying number.

As exposed in the leaked documents, Nueva Pescanova also plans to kill up to one million octopuses each year by submerging them in 500-liter "ice slurry" tanks, where they will eventually freeze to death - a method scientifically proven to be inhumane.

Nueva Pescanova claims they are opening this factory farm to compensate for the fact that the wild octopus population is in steep decline from overfishing. Conservationists, however, see no reason why the fishing industry will stop hunting wild octopuses in addition to raising them in captivity and there is a great deal of concern about the fish that will be used as a food source for the octopuses raised in confinement. There is already an enormous strain on aquatic animals from overfishing, as trillions of aquatic animals are killed every year for human consumption.

This new form of animal cruelty will likely only make things worse for wild fish populations as octopuses only eat live food and can consume 1-2% of their body weight a day in fish and other sea creatures. This new industry could also put human consumers at risk as aquatic animals raised in captivity are more likely to contract transmissible diseases.

Please join Species Unite in calling on the Spanish Government and the European Union to ban octopus farming and stop this new form of mechanized animal cruelty before it is too late.