Aquatic Animal Alliance Webinar: Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs, An Updated Assessment

Octopuses are cognitively complex and they experience pain and suffering. The science proving it is now changing the law globally. This Earth Day, the Aquatic Animal Alliance is hosting a talk by Dr. Heather Browning, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Southampton, whose research on cephalopod sentience was part of the review that brought octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish under the protection of the UK Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act. Her presentation, Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs: An Updated Assessment, walks through the eight scientific criteria used to evaluate sentience in cephalopods, the evidence behind them, and what that evidence demands of us in ethics, welfare, and policy. This is the science at the foundation of AAA's campaign to ban octopus farming. Octopuses are sentient and unlike so many aquatic species, they don't yet face industrial farming at scale. We have a unique opportunity to ensure this species is never farmed intensively.