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Despite the controversy, a restaurant called Sik Gaek in Queens, New York has been serving its customers’ octopuses to eat alive.

The Oscar-nominated documentary My Octopus Teacher focuses on the relationship a filmmaker forges with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world.

The intelligence of octopuses is well known, but did you know that they have been observed decorating their homes with pretty bits of glass, shells, and bottle tops? They’ve also been seen using tools and playing games! Octopuses have extremely sensitive skin for both touch sensation and chemical recognition. Their suckers are the equivalent of a tongue or fingertip, and the linings are regularly shed to maintain sensitivity to touch and taste. These brilliant beings are like us in so many ways that for most people, the thought of eating one alive is unimaginable.

However, Sik Gaek in Queens, New York, has for years insisted on serving octopuses and lobsters – another complex, misunderstood species also known to have the ability to experience great pain – still squirming on dinner plates, to those customers who find slowly hacking apart living, suffering animals to be appetising. The restaurant even brags about this horrific practice on its website.

Sik Gaek needs to continue hearing from the compassionate public until it decides to join the 21st century and leave this cruelty behind. Please contact its management and tell them what you think!

Original source: https://www.peta.org