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I had a joyful experience at the octopus farm near Kona Hawaii (now sadly closed because they were even more sadly apparently not treating the animals well). W
by brookst 3y ago
I had a joyful experience at the octopus farm near Kona Hawaii (now sadly closed because they were even more sadly apparently not treating the animals well).
With hands in the tank, I was able to play catch with a small plastic ball and a roughly 2 month old octopus. It was definitely catch — I could scoot the ball anywhere and the octopus would grab it and throw it back.
Possibly a trained behavior, who knows? It was really charming and delightful.
- colechristensen 3y agoOne of the struggles with researching octopus intelligence is that they’re basically untrainable. They’ll do what you want them to if they’re interested but it’s quite difficult to get them to be consistently interested. In other words, it was probably fun for the octopus too.
- inglor_cz 3y agoBoredom is likely a very good indicator of high cognitive capabilities.
- jeffreygoesto 3y agoSounds a lot like my daughter. And me if I think about it :/
- tomaskafka 3y agoDoing whatever she wants is a feature, not a bug :)
- diggan 3y ago> One of the struggles with researching octopus intelligence is that they’re basically untrainable. They’ll do what you want them to if they’re interested but it’s quite difficult to get them to be consistently interested. One of my dogs is the same. She knows exactly what you want her to do, but if there is no rewards involved, it's impossible. But as soon as you hold a snack in your hand, anything and more is possible. Maybe the scientists haven't found a good enough snack to give them?
- telesilla 3y ago>treating animals well At any farm where animals are bred as commercial food sources we don't treat them with dignity. Another farm on the way - https://www.npr.org/2024/02/07/1229233837/octopus-farm-spain-controversy https://www.npr.org/2024/02/07/1229233837/octopus-farm-spain...
- zilti 3y agoThere are lots of farms where animals are treated well and with dignity. At least over here in Switzerland. Source: worked at one, and saw a lot of them (my father worked as a vet).
- telesilla 3y agoYes, I've also visited and lived on such farms. They are for small specialist production, I wouldn't say commercial. Great that you know more of them: it proves we can treat animals very well and still have (albeit at low quantity) meat production.
- zilti 3y agoIt isn't "small specialist". It's the norm in Switzerland, because the law demands it.
- wahnfrieden 3y agoAre they industrialized farms?
- Voultapher 3y agoWho are you fooling here? Yourself? Imagine your children being born into one of these farms. There is no self determination. Only because we are not overtly cruel doesn't mean we don't treat them like slaves. "Look at my slave, now that I impregnated her she gets to have a couple more square meter to walk around in until her children are taken away from her." Not all farms are equally bad, but there is no farm where if you applied the same treatment to humans it would not constitute human rights violations. You might argue non human animals are different, but why does that matter? Black and white people are different, why would that difference justify enslaving one group?