PETA Petitions To Take Live Octopus Off The Menu At LA Restaurants
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Animal rights activists are petitioning California lawmakers to prohibit restaurants from serving live octopus, shrimp and other marine life.
PETA released the petition on Tuesday, along with a video of an octopus writhing as its limbs are severed by a chef at T Equals Fish, a Koreatown sushi restaurant.
About a dozen restaurants in California and New York serve live octopus, according to PETA. Live octopus is most commonly used in a dish comprised of moving octopus tentacles, called "sannakji," PETA said.
PETA says octopuses, which are considered among the most intelligent invertebrates, are capable of feeling pain just as a pig or rabbit would.
"Octopuses have sophisticated nervous systems that are rich with pain receptors, so they suffer immensely for a diner's fleeting taste experience," PETA vice president of cruelty investigations Daphna Nachminovitch said in a statement. "PETA is calling for an end to this disgusting, uncivilized, grossly inhumane, and gruesome practice of hacking up and serving live, sensitive animals."
T Equals Fish could not immediately be reached for comment.