Prevent Octopus Farming in New York
BREAKING NEWS:
New Yorkers, we need your help to protect our waterways and make sure that octopus farming never comes to our state!
Woodstock Sanctuary has been working with a coalition of animal protection organizations for over a year, meeting with New York legislators and building support for ban on octopus farming in New York. We are thrilled to announce that the bill is now a reality in both the State Assembly and Senate with bill numbers A8043 A and S7421 A! Thank you to our lead sponsors Senator Monica Martinez and Assembly Member Tony Simone for their leadership. Thank you as well to all the members of our coalition including Voters for Animals Rights, Animal Rights Initiative, Mercy for Animals, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the Center for Biological Diversity.
A Hawaiian day octopus is confined in a small tank with only a cave for shelter and a couple of toys at Kanaloa Octopus Farm, which performs breeding experiments on wild-caught octopuses. Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA, 2022. Laura Lee Cascada / The Every Animal Project / We Animals
What does the bill say?
The bill A8043/S7421 bans the commercial farming of octopus in NY. Right now, huge international corporations are doing harmful research that will allow them to exploit octopuses on a scale we’ve never seen before. Right now, the octopus that people eat are wild-caught. These corporations want to intensively farm octopus indoors to make more money faster. Allowing octopus farming to come to New York would be an environmental and ethical disaster—it’s imperative that we ban this practice before it can take hold here.
One of the coalition members we’re working with is Voters for Animal Rights
What can you do to help?
If you are in New York State, contact your State Senator and Assembly Member and let them know that this bill is vital both to protect NY waterways from being polluted by international mega-corporations and to prevent enormous cruelty to octopuses. Remember to have the bill number handy when you call! If you are in the districts of Senator Martinez or Assembly Member Simone please call and thank them.
A Hawaiian day octopus observes visitors during a tour at Kanaloa Octopus Farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. The facility confines wild-caught octopuses alone in small tanks to perform breeding experiments on them for the octopus aquaculture industry. Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA, 2022. Laura Lee Cascada / The Every Animal Project / We Animals
Sign up for our advocacy alerts HERE as we are planning a State-Wide day of action in June and we need everyone to help.
If you are not in New York State, please follow us on all social media and share information about the bill when we share it. We can all fight for octopuses together!