Will Gordon Ramsay Dodge PETA U.K.’s ‘Octocurse’ This Halloween?

For Immediate Release:
October 20, 2022

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

In time for Halloween, PETA U.K. is releasing a new video warning people of the dangers of the terrifying “octocurse”—which slowly turns any human who kills, cooks, or consumes octopus into a cephalopod—and the group just sent a letter to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay urging him to avoid the curse by keeping octopus flesh off his menus and out of his kitchens.

“By serving octopus in your restaurants at this eerie time of year, you put yourself and diners at risk of this fabled, ancient curse,” PETA U.K. Vice President Elisa Allen warns Ramsay in the letter, which points out that octopuses are hyper-intelligent beings capable of complex thought processes who have been known to caress and kiss one another, use tools, navigate mazes, attempt escapes, and even squirt their captors with water. They are also extremely sensitive to pain. Their brains are distributed throughout their bodies, so being cut up while still alive or speared to death—both common methods of killing these animals—causes them prolonged agony.

“Fortunately, dodging the curse is simple: Take octopus off your menus for good and pledge never, ever to eat these clever cephalopods,” Allen concludes.

PETA U.K.—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.