Uncovering the horrific reality of octopus farming

16 March 2023

CIWF

Eurogroup for Animals and Compassion in World Farming are calling for the world’s first commercial octopus farm to be scrapped, after plans obtained for its development revealed the animal cruelty and environmental consequences it would cause. Furthermore, they are calling on the EU not to use public funds to support octopus farming developments, or any other new industrial animal-based farming in the light of significant and growing scientific evidence that it is killing our planet.

The plans, submitted to the General Directorate of Fishing of the Government of the Canary Islands by the company Nueva Pescanova, and uncovered by Eurogroup for Animals, have raised serious concerns. These include the use of a cruel slaughter method, the confinement of octopuses in small barren tanks, and practices that contribute to the overexploitation of wild fish populations. The campaigners’ concerns over the plans are outlined in the new report Uncovering the horrific reality of octopus farming and confirmed by scientists in the field. 

They reveal that around one million octopuses will be reared at the proposed farm in the Port of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, Spain, producing some 3,000 tonnes of octopus each year. 

They also confirm the campaigners’ fears that a number of extremely concerning practices would be implemented, including that octopuses would be:

Slaughtered using cruel ice slurry: a highly aversive and inhumane method scientifically proven to cause considerable pain, fear and suffering as well as a prolonged death. 

Confined in crowded, barren underwater tanks that will result in poor welfare and risk aggression, territorialism and even cannibalism due to the octopuses’ naturally solitary nature. 

Exposed to round-the-clock unnatural light to increase reproduction, which will cause undue stress given the aversion these animals have to light.

Fed with commercial feeds containing fishmeal and fish oil as main ingredients, which is unsustainable and contributes to the overfishing of wild populations. 

Raised within a land-based aquaculture system relating to higher risk of mass mortality due to the overcrowded conditions required for their profitability as well as negative environmental impacts stemming from the excessive use of energy.

In 2021, Compassion in World Farming released the report Octopus Factory Farming: A Recipe for Disaster, arguing that octopus farming is cruel and would cause environmental damage to our oceans. According to the report, experimental trials to farm octopuses suggest that the mortality rate in these systems would be around 20%, meaning that 1 in 5 individuals would not survive the entire production cycle.

Although, if approved, the Canary Islands farm would be the world’s first industrial octopus farm, there are attempts to establish similar octopus farms in other parts of the world such as Mexico and Japan. In February, Washington State in the US signalled a move toward banning octopus farming, which would be the first of its kind. This followed the recent closure of the only active octopus farm in the US, the “Kanaloa Octopus Farm” based in Hawaii, in response to Compassion in World Farming’s campaign. 

Octopus has become an increasingly popular food in recent decades, particularly in Spain. As a result, wild octopus numbers are dwindling. In 2015, the number of octopuses caught around the world reached a high of 400,000 tonnes – 10 times more than in 1950.

Blindly establishing a new farming system without consideration of the ethical and environmental implications is a step in all the wrong directions and flies in the face of the EU’s plans for a sustainable food transformation. With the current revision of the animal welfare legislation, the European Commission now has the real opportunity to avoid the terrible suffering of millions of animals. We cannot afford to leave aquatic animals behind. We’re calling on the EU to include a ban on octopus farming before it ever sees the light of day, in order to avoid plunging more sentient beings into a living hell.

Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals

We implore the Canary Islands authorities to reject Nueva Pescanova’s plans and we urge the EU to ban octopus farming as part of its current legislative review. It will inflict unnecessary suffering on these intelligent, sentient and fascinating creatures, which need to explore and engage with the environment as part of their natural behaviour. Their carnivorous diets require huge quantities of animal protein to sustain, contributing to overfishing at a time when fish stocks are already under immense pressure. Factory farming is the biggest single cause of animal cruelty on the planet, and it’s literally destroying our planet. We should be ending factory farming, not finding new species to confine in underwater factory farms. We must end octopus farming now.

Elena Lara, Research Manager at Compassion in World Farming

Uncovering the horrific reality of octopus farming

BROWSE TO THIS PUBLICATION

Regards Mark

24h LIVE footage from factory cages: dive into the heartbreaking reality of confined animals on Italian factory farms

11 March 2023

Essere Animali

Essere Animali has launched a 24h live broadcast from four different intensive breeding farms in Italy, to illustrate the sad fate of caged animals first-hand.

Conducted for End the Cage Age, the coalition that aims to end the use of cages for animals bred for food, the project consists of a real live broadcast from rabbit, calf, sow and chicken farms.

From 10 p.m. on Friday 10 March until 10 p.m. on Saturday 11 March, the everyday life of these animals – who are forced to live in cages in extreme confinement, and with no possibilities to express their natural behaviours – will be shown.

You can access the livestream below, or via this link.

The End the Cage Age initiative has collected more than 1.4 million signatures validated throughout Europe, and has achieved success so far with the European Commission’s commitment to work for a ban in the EU on cage farming. Cage farming is also considered by the scientific community as being in stark contrast to the animal welfare standards the farming sector should meet, and has further been criticised by the European Food Safety Authority.

But there is still a lot of work to be done. In Italy, more than 40 million animals are still bred in these conditions, and it is essential that the government and relevant companies work together to phase out this practice.

It’s what the animals desperately need, and what EU citizens clearly want. In fact, according to a poll by YouGov Plc (2020), 84% of Italian citizens believe that the use of cages is cruel to animals, and 83% call for agricultural funds to be used to incentivise the transition to cage-free farming. It’s time to answer the public’s calls for change and put an end to animals living behind bars.

footage from factory cages: dive into the heartbreaking reality of confined animals on Italian factory farms.

Regards Mark

10 March 2023

GAIA (Belgium)

In his own words, Flemish Animal Welfare Minister Ben Weyts said, “It is our damned duty to avoid animal suffering”. With new investigative footage, GAIA is calling on the Minister to turn his words into actions and ban enriched cages in Flanders for more than 3,000,000 laying hens currently confined to the space of an A4 piece of paper.

There are currently more than 3 million laying hens in cages in Flanders. The hens are locked up there for the duration of their lives – 13 months – in which time they have to produce as many eggs as possible. 

Footage released by GAIA from a laying hen farm in Sint-Gillis-Waas clearly demonstrates the problem of caged hens. Countless chickens are housed in unhygienic metal grid cages stacked on top of each other, too restricted to spread their wings properly.

The sanitary condition of the farm is deplorable and the metal grids cause a lot of injuries and suffering. The footage shows that the plumage of many chickens is damaged, and many chickens do not survive – carcasses are seen everywhere. 

Wallonia, the French-speaking region of southern Belgium, already banned cages for laying hens in 2018. 

Almost three-quarters of Flemish people (72%) agree that keeping chickens in cages should be banned, according to a 2022 study by Ipsos. 

At the end of February, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published their opinions on the welfare of laying hens and broilers. They clearly indicated that poultry should not be kept in cages and advise better living conditions, such as aviaries with covered outdoor areas or “winter gardens”, which are already used in some farms in Flanders.

Chickens are welfare-sensitive animals and deserve a better life, Mr. Minister. You know that yourself and it is your damned duty to avoid avoidable animal suffering, as you so aptly put it. We count on you to really get to work on this now, to take your role as Animal Minister to heart and to abolish the cages, starting with all cages for laying hens.

Ann De Greef, Director of GAIA

Read more at source

GAIA

End The Cage Age

Regards Mark