Octopus on PETA Billboard Points a Tentacle at Local Diners

For Immediate Release:
June 23, 2021

Contact:
Tapi Mbundure 202-483-7382

Directly across the street from two eateries with mollusks on the menu, a new PETA billboard carries a pro-vegan message from octopuses to local diners: “Hands off!”

Diners can easily opt for vegan selections at both restaurants—Okinawa Japanese Grillhouse & Sushi Bar and Fuji Sushi—and that fish-free proteins like Gardein vegan fish fillets and Good Catch vegan tuna are the latest development in healthy and compassionate food and available at nearly every grocery store.

“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 have the capacity to feel bored, unscrew jar lids, communicate with each other using patterns and colors, and use tools. Those held in captivity have even attempted escapes 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.

The ad is located at 2025 Hamilton St. and will run until July 11.

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.