The Bill That Could Stop a New Industry of Suffering
Octopuses aren’t resources. They aren’t delicacies. They aren’t ingredients. They’re thinking, feeling individuals with personalities, memories, and preferences, and if we’re smart, we’ll keep them as far away from factory farming as possible.
Right now, the U.S. has a rare opportunity to do something governments almost never do: stop the exploitation of a species before it begins. There’s currently no commercial octopus farming in the country, none. And two U.S. senators, Sheldon Whitehouse and Lisa Murkowski, are trying to keep it that way.
The bipartisan bill they’ve introduced would ban commercial octopus farming and prevent the import of farmed octopuses from abroad. In a world where animal industries expand behind closed doors and laws only react to suffering after it becomes profitable, this is a preemptive strike against a nightmare still on the drawing board.
Sentient, Solitary, and Slated for Slaughter?
Octopuses are sentient. They solve puzzles. They use tools. They recognise individuals. They dream. But in the world of industrial farming, all that means is more ways to suffer.
Octopuses are solitary and territorial. Factory farming demands confinement, crowding, handling, and forced interactions. In other words: the exact opposite of what they need. Locking them in tanks doesn’t just cause stress, it leads to cannibalism, self-mutilation, and slow, psychological breakdown.
And when it comes time to kill them? Common methods include clubbing, slicing, suffocation, or freezing them alive. No matter how it’s spun, it’s slaughter. And it’s every bit as barbaric as it sounds.
The Excuse? “Sustainability.”
The Spanish seafood giant Nueva Pescanova wants to build the world’s first commercial octopus farm in the Canary Islands. Their excuse? To take pressure off wild populations. The reality? Farming octopuses requires feeding them wild-caught fish, a lot, of fish. These carnivores eat up to three times their body weight. So we’d be emptying the oceans to imprison the ocean’s most intelligent invertebrates. “Sustainable” has never sounded so hollow.
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., some politicians are trying to greenlight these farms under the illusion of protecting fishing interests. As if the solution to dwindling wild populations is to build land-based torture tanks and call it innovation.
No Farm. No Problem. No Excuse.
Octopus farming in the U.S. doesn’t exist. That’s the point. This bill isn’t fixing a broken system, it’s stopping one from forming at all. There’s no corporate machine to fight, no entrenched supply chain to untangle. It’s the perfect time to draw a line.
And it’s not just activists saying so. Over 100 scientists, including leaders in marine biology and animal behaviour, have already backed the bill. The U.K. recognises octopuses as sentient. Washington and California have banned octopus farms before any were built. Spain is debating a full ban.
So what’s Congress waiting for?
Octopuses evolved to thrive in the vast, ever-changing expanse of the sea. Farming them is a recipe for cruelty, waste, and ecological destruction. It’s not about feeding the hungry. It’s about feeding a luxury market addicted to novelty. Nobody needs octopus flesh. But octopuses need freedom.
This bill isn’t radical, it’s rational. It’s not about slowing progress, it’s about redefining it. A civilisation that builds tanks for beings who dream is a civilisation that’s failed to learn the simplest lesson of all:
Just because we can use someone doesn’t mean we should.