Octopus farming is an emerging threat to animal welfare and marine ecosystems. Cephalopods are solitary, intelligent animals who thrive in the depths of the open ocean and will suffer in crowded factory farming conditions. Several cases of captive octopuses squeezing through tight spaces to escape their tanks have been documented around the world. Their potential escape from industrial farms, where disease can quickly spread, also poses risks to Oregon’s marine life, endangering native animal populations already struggling to survive.

“Octopuses are intelligent, sensitive beings who belong in the wild, not in factory farms. Banning octopus farming will affirm Oregon’s commitment to compassion and sustainability, rejecting a cruel and needless industry,” says Miranda Eisen, an Oregonian and Farm Sanctuary’s Senior Manager of Outreach & State Policy.

Washington and California have already passed similar bans. If enacted, HB 2557 will ensure that commercial octopus farming never takes hold in Oregon either.

Please take action today by contacting the House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water and urging them to support HB 2557 before the April 9 work session!

If you don’t live in Oregon, you can still speak out for octopuses today:

• Know someone who lives in Oregon and cares about protecting aquatic animals? Send them this link and urge them to take action by April 9.
• Learn more about the emerging commercial octopus industry so you can advocate for octopuses and explain why they would languish on factory farms.

Aquaculture, the farming of marine life, now accounts for around half of the world’s seafood production. As aquaculture intensifies, trillions of animals face immense suffering. 

Thank you for doing your part to advocate for all farmed animals, including those who should be swimming freely in their ocean home.