Legislative proposal aims at preventive ban on octopus farming in Spain
The rejection is based on serious concerns regarding animal welfare and the environment: the extreme cruelty of keeping intelligent, solitary animals such as octopuses under farming conditions, the absence of humane slaughter methods, and the harmful effects such farms would have on sensitive marine ecosystems.
The Spanish association of jurists, INTERCIDS, has submitted a legislative proposal to national politicians aimed at proactively banning octopus farming across the country.
The proposal is a response to the growing chorus of scientists, animal and environmental protection organisations, and citizens who have spoken out against octopus farming.
Although there are currently no industrial octopus farms in Spain or elsewhere, the multinational fishing corporation Nueva Pescanova has announced plans to establish the world's first octopus farm on an industrial scale in the Canary Islands.
The proposal, submitted to the Parliamentary Association for the Defence of Animal Rights (APDDA), aims to amend Spanish Law 23/1984 on marine aquaculture in order to prohibit the farming of octopuses for food purposes and other productive purposes. Furthermore, the marketing of octopus products derived from such activities would be prohibited.
Octopuses consumed as food are currently caught in the wild, primarily by small fishing operations. There is currently no legal framework for octopus farming in Spain. The INTERCIDS proposal therefore aims to close this gap preventively by enshrining a ban in law that takes into account the serious risks of keeping octopuses in captivity for farming purposes.
It is the duty of authorities to protect the environment and animals. And they must do so by applying the precautionary principle. In the case of octopus farming, this would mean an entirely new activity for which there are no specific regulations, but of which we already know that it will inevitably have harmful consequences for these animals and for the environment. Given these negative impacts, octopus farming should be prohibited as an important precautionary measure. And since it is, to date, a non-existent activity, now is the right time to ban it. This is a matter of public responsibility. María Gonzalez, lawyer, member of the board of INTERCIDS
The next steps for the proposal depend on national politicians, who must decide whether to submit it as a formal legislative proposal to be adopted by parliament in the coming months.
