I totally get where you are coming from, but I want to discuss one thing you mentioned.
You decided to stop eating octopus, because they're very smart animals. Which is understandable to me. But why do you decide what animals to eat, based on how intelligent they seem to us? If we turn that argument around, it's okay to eat an animal if its 'dumb'. Why is that so?
To show my perspective, I am becoming more vegetarian the more time passes, because I just can't justify anymore how we treat animals which are meant for comsumption - Forcefully impregnating them, taking their kids away, keeping them in cages yada yada yada. Which means that for me it does not matter how subjectively or objectively intelligent an animal is, same as how I don't treat humans based on their intelligence. Mostly. Of course, if I have to explain something to another human, my explanation will vary on how intelligent they seem to me. But I think you know what I mean :)
As far as I know, pigs are extremely intelligent. Maybe not on the level of an octopus, but still. So, do you eat pig?
And to end, I am not trying to accuse you of any wrongdoing or whatever, its just very interesting to me and I want to talk about it.
Could be, yes. Although I do wonder if the average octopus suffers more when being killed than the average cow. If so, then I wonder if that relates to intelligence or to other factors. Structure of nerves etc.
If an octopus wasn't able to feel anything, it would again be okay to eat it? Or if it was sedated before killing it, would that change anything?
Lots of open questions I guess, but I'm just brainstorming a bit :)
Apologies this wasn't more clear and I am sorry I didn't get back to you sooner; I have never been a consumer of octopus or cephalopods more broadly. I rarely eat meat in general - maybe once a year - and when I do, I only eat meat that has been raised on a small farm humanely and is likewise slaughtered humanely.
The closest I get to regular meat eating is consumption of eggs and dairy. I get both from small, local farms. The chickens are free range and the farmers avoid industrial egg farming mechanisms that result in unnecessary death of grown animals. The cattle are not pumped with grotesque amounts of hormones nor are they milked on factory-like rotating milk pumps that maximize output and ignore the unneeded stress placed on the animals.
Hope this makes sense, as I agree with all the concerns you raised.
I eat all animals, octopus is delicious. What I do practice is compassion and respect for when I do, going out of my way to ensure it was done so in as an ethical and sustainable way as possible. Much of my protein these days I catch myself.
An unnecessary killing is never respectful. You can attach whatever rituals and formalities to the process to ease your conscience, but at the end of the day if you kill a sentient animal for momentary pleasure, you don’t respect it in the slightest.
You decided to stop eating octopus, because they're very smart animals. Which is understandable to me. But why do you decide what animals to eat, based on how intelligent they seem to us? If we turn that argument around, it's okay to eat an animal if its 'dumb'. Why is that so?
To show my perspective, I am becoming more vegetarian the more time passes, because I just can't justify anymore how we treat animals which are meant for comsumption - Forcefully impregnating them, taking their kids away, keeping them in cages yada yada yada. Which means that for me it does not matter how subjectively or objectively intelligent an animal is, same as how I don't treat humans based on their intelligence. Mostly. Of course, if I have to explain something to another human, my explanation will vary on how intelligent they seem to me. But I think you know what I mean :)
As far as I know, pigs are extremely intelligent. Maybe not on the level of an octopus, but still. So, do you eat pig?
And to end, I am not trying to accuse you of any wrongdoing or whatever, its just very interesting to me and I want to talk about it.