Octopus on PETA Billboard Points a Tentacle at Local Diners

For Immediate Release:
July 19, 2021

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Near several boardwalk restaurants with mollusks on their menus, a new PETA billboard carries a pro-vegan message from octopuses to local diners: “Hands off!”

“With a mini brain in each tentacle, octopuses are smart as can be, and they’re so sensitive that they can taste everything they touch,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s billboard is a reminder that vegan foods are always within reach, even if you don’t have eight arms!”

Highly intelligent and known to caress and kiss, octopuses communicate with each other using patterns and colors. They use tools, can unscrew jar lids, and have the capacity to feel bored. Those held in captivity have even attempted escape and squirted their captors with water. 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 mollusks are even eaten alive.

PETA notes that fish-free proteins like Gardein vegan fish fillets and Good Catch vegan tuna are the latest development in healthy and compassionate food and are available at nearly every grocery store.

The ad is located on the Atlantic City Expressway, facing west.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—offers a free vegan starter kit full of recipes, tips, and more. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.