a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by humanodon
humanodon  ·  4163 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: ▶ Tattoo Regret - A Documentary - YouTube

Last year I met a writer named Sy Montgomery on a flight to Chicago. She was on her way to Washington to do research on octopus mating behaviors. She's a great conversationalist and we talked about all kinds of things, particularly animals (which she primarily writes about). Anyway, she told me a bit about octopus intelligence and how they've been observed using tools and even building rudimentary structures, like entryways to crevices and little caves to protect themselves from predators. They're pretty damn cool.

Here's something she wrote about octopuses (it's not cuttlefish, but same family)





b_b  ·  4162 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Their intelligence makes it difficult for me to eat octopus. I haven't given up on it completely, but I never feel quite right about it.

humanodon  ·  4162 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I was just thinking that. But then, I've eaten dogs and I've eaten pigs and I've had both as pets. I wouldn't willingly eat my dog (or dog in general, again) or my pig (and I abstained from pork for a whole month, just to be on the safe side) or I guess my octopus (if I ever own one, unlikely as that may be).

But yeah, eating intelligent animals is uncool, though not as uncool as a lot of other "acceptable" human behaviors.