MATTHEW ROZSA, Salon ; Is it ethical to eat octopuses? An acclaimed octopus expert and marine biologist weighs in
"Whether grilled, on sushin or mixed into stir fry or ceviche, there are many ways to consume octopus. But given their well-known, almost human-like intelligence, it begs the question: is it ethical to eat eight-legged cephalopods?...
I had a takeaway from your book, and I'm going to address that takeaway with my next question. Do you believe it is ethical for humans to eat octopuses?
Oh, that's a complex question with a variety of ways that it might be answered. I don't eat octopuses anymore because I find them more interesting alive, behaviorally, than I think they could ever be on the plate. I don't think that people ought to be eating octopuses because it's exotic or interesting or just something they haven't tried before. But people eat meat for a variety of reasons of all kinds, and I don't think octopuses are uniquely different from other kinds of meat that we eat.
For some people in certain circumstances, they'd be a lot more ethical, I think, to make different food choices. But I don't think it's a blanket statement that people should eat animals. Overall I think we have a long evolutionary history of eating animals and it's part of the ways that we interact with the natural world."
