Hands off the Octopuses: PETA Launches International Billboard Campaign in Koreatown

For Immediate Release:
August 4, 2021

Contact:
Tapi Mbundure 202-483-7382

PETA’s first billboard in an international campaign to urge diners to spare “sensitive, intelligent, and inquisitive” octopuses will launch in California’s Koreatown before moving on to other U.S. locations and other countries.

“With all we now know about the pain sensitivity and intelligence of octopuses and with so many delicious vegan options available today, it’s easy to make the traditional dishes we love without killing these animals and chopping them up,” says PETA’s Se Jung (Ivy) Yoon. “PETA’s billboard encourages everyone to practice compassion to octopuses by leaving them off our plates.”

Highly intelligent, with a mini-brain in each tentacle, and known to caress and kiss their partners, octopuses communicate with each other by using patterns and colors. They use tools and can unscrew jar lids after simply watching it being done once, and some in captivity have successfully and very cleverly bided their time in order to make the perfect escape. But because of speciesism—the human-held belief that other species are inferior to our own—billions of octopuses and other invertebrates are killed for food each year. Some are eaten alive, including for the traditional Korean dish sannakji, in which a young octopus is cut up, doused in sesame oil, and served while still squirming.

The ad is located at 3368 El Camino Real.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—offers a free vegan starter kit and notes that fish-free proteins are the latest development in healthy and compassionate food. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.