Lily at 9 will swim across the ocean to defend octopuses

She wants to help the octopuses, she wants to prevent yet another massacre, yet another factory of suffering, and that is why she is preparing, training daily for the weekend of May 25 when, from the sea of theAlgarve, she will launch her cry for help to stop a threat to the future that so many like her - more and more - want no part of.

Lily Niederhofer is 9 years old, lives in Portugal, loves animals and considers octopuses her friends. When she heard about plans to open the world's first commercial octopus farm in Gran Canaria, she decided she had to do something to try to stop it.

Lily knows this animal well and knows how intensive breeding-a cause of suffering and mistreatment for any species-would be particularly cruel in this case.

In nature, octopuses lead a solitary life; considered particularly intelligent by humans, it has been observed that these animals are able to handle and solve complex operations, have the ability to use tools, play games, have good memory, and generally possess highly developed cognitive abilities.

The confinement inside crowded tanks would be a completely unnatural living condition for this solitary, carnivorous species, and would likely induce episodes of aggression and acts of cannibalism, as CIWF (Compassion in World Farming) Italy explains on this page. A hellish life with an atrocious denouement.Ice slurry, the slaughter technique envisaged in this case, consists of immersing the animal in a mixture of water and ice, a method of killing that induces a slow and painful death and that would occur a million times a year, as many as the number of animals bred annually envisaged by the project presented by the company Nueva Pescanova with the intention of opening the world's first commercial octopus farm.

And the damage would not be limited to the mistreatment of farmed animals, but, as the animal rights organization illustrates between the pages of its website, would extend to other species, the environment, ecosystems and public health. The facilities, in fact, would be major sources of pollution, the area envisaged by the project moreover, is located near the port of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, where the poor water quality would not guarantee the ideal premises for food production. In addition, the feeding of these animals would impose the use of feed produced by killing other wild species, already hard hit by intensive fishing.

At risk are dolphins, turtles, resources, entire ecosystems, and even people's health-a project that seems to have all the hallmarks of unsustainability, and one that seems to disregard serious global emergencies, as stated by Keri Tietge, Eurogroup for Animals policy officer for aquatic animals:

"There is no justification for introducing this new type of intensive farming, just when climate crisis experts are warning of the urgent need to change our food systems and adopt more sustainable eating habits. We deserve better than continued environmental devastation to line corporate pockets, and these extraordinary animals deserve better than lives reduced to confinement and suffering."

Lily will swim, she will do it for 2 kilometers, in the cold Atlantic waters, to raise money to donate to the campaigns of CIWS, among the major organizations committed to stopping the breeding project. A swim, a scream, a plea for help, a decidedly demanding psychophysical test, experienced with great enthusiasm by the sweet little girl who is not new to this kind of initiative; already last year, swimming 5 kilometers, the then octenne managed to raise 2,000 euros for theGosh Children's Hospital in London.

To support Lily's campaign click here.