Why privilege one species (humans) over all other animal species, when we all breathe and share the same earth? 

We are in a pivotal moment with respect to species outside of our own, with an extraordinary opportunity to create a profound kinship with those whom our fates are tied, with whom we share a spirit of consciousness. More than 30 countries have formally recognized other animals, including gorillas, lobsters, crows, and octopuses as sentient beings. Aren?t they all sentient?

Octopuses, with their staggering intelligence, are the only invertebrate species to make the list of the Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness. The way they float through the water, poetically, romantically, thrillingly, moves us to the depths of our soul. As British naturalist, Michael McCarthy, writes, ?The natural world is not separate from us, it is part of us. It is as much a part of us as our capacity for language; we are bonded to it still; however hard it may be to perceive the union in the tumult of modern urban life. Yet the union can be found, the union of ourselves and nature, in the joy which nature can spark and fire in us.?

And yet alarmingly, Nueva Pescanova, the global seafood company, in a tale of rapaciousness, hubris, and crass exploitation, has plans to start the first industrial commercial farming of up to one million mostly solitary and sentient octopuses a year, imprisoning them in tanks along a dock at the Port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria island, in yet another monstrous example of the possible extermination of another species.

Because of the danger of octopus farming perhaps becoming a reality, and not just in one area but setting a precedent for other countries as well, brings with it not only the massacre of millions of octopuses, but also the terrifying prospect of far-reaching calamitous ethical, environmental, and ecological catastrophes associated with concentrated aquaculture. And octopuses are carnivores, who consume four times their body weight, requiring constantly feeding them other animals, which can lead to the destruction of related wild species and the decimation of ecosystems.

Your donations will support the development of a powerful seven-minute film, a multilayered animation documentary short, with an award-winning filmmaker from the social change filmmaking world. Sy Montgomery, the renowned "octopus whisperer,? the octopus bard herself, is narrating the film. We can?t wait to bring this stirring film to life and to share its odyssey with you.