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

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

London – For Halloween, PETA is releasing a new video created by Grey London warning people of the dangers of the terrifying “octocurse” – which slowly turns any human who kills, cooks, or consumes octopuses into a cephalopod – and the group sent a special letter to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay urging him to avoid the curse by keeping octopuses off his menus and out of his kitchens.

“By serving octopuses in your restaurants at this eerie time of year, you put yourself and diners at risk of this fabled, ancient curse,” PETA warns Ramsay – who has been notoriously reluctant to embrace vegan dining – in its letter, which points out that octopuses are hyper-intelligent animals capable of complex thought processes who can navigate mazes, use tools, and learn how to do such things as unscrew lids simply by watching. They are also extremely sensitive to pain. Their brains are distributed throughout their bodies, so being cut up alive or speared to death – both common methods of killing these animals – causes them prolonged agony.

“Fortunately, dodging the curse is simple: take octopuses off your menus for good and pledge never, ever to eat these clever cephalopods,” PETA concludes its letter.

“If Gordon Ramsay could make decisions with his heart instead of his bottomless stomach, he’d admit that carving up these highly intelligent, sensitive beings is cruel and unnecessary,” says PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen. “As Halloween approaches, PETA is warning Ramsay and people everywhere to change course to vegan eating or suffer the ‘octocurse’.”

PETA is also trying to put a stop to efforts to open the world’s first intensive octopus farm in the Canary Islands. Scientists have warned that these sensitive animals would suffer acutely when confined to cramped tanks and slaughtered, likely while still conscious, using crude methods such as clubbing.

PETA – 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.

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327 x222; [email protected]

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