Octopuses could get the same protections as mice and monkeys thanks to a growing body of evidence that suggests they feel pain

• The National Institutes of Health published proposed guidelines for octopuses used in research.
• The NIH said a growing body of evidence suggests cephalopods are capable of feeling pain.
• Other countries have also extended animal welfare protections to octopuses.

Thanks to mounting evidence that they may be capable of feeling pain, octopuses could soon receive the same legal protections that mice and monkeys have in the US.

The US National Institutes of Health this month published proposed guidance on the use of cephalopods — such as octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish — in research, experimentation, and biological testing.

The guidance sets standard practices for activities involving cephalopods, including additional oversight aimed at "avoiding or minimizing discomfort, distress, and pain to cephalopods used for these purposes."

The US Public Health Service sets the federal standards for animal welfare in science under its policy on "Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals." The policy defines "animals" as "any live, vertebrate animal" used in research or related purposes.

That includes mice and monkeys, which are commonly used in research. But it excludes all invertebrates, including the more than 800 species of cephalopods worldwide, even though the NIH said they are increasingly being used in research.

"A growing body of evidence demonstrates that cephalopods possess many of the requisite biological mechanisms for the perception of pain, such as nociceptors and a centralized nervous system," the NIH said, adding cephalopods also have advanced learning capabilities, respond to unpleasant stimuli, and display a similar response to anesthetics as mammals do.

The NIH noted additional research is still needed to fully understand the perceptions of cephalopods.

Robyn Crook, a marine biologist at San Francisco State University in California, told Nature magazine that ensuring the welfare of cephalopods would be difficult because so little is known about how to actually do it, including how they feel pain or what would help mitigate it.

Public comments on the proposed guidance are being accepted through December 22, after which final guidance will be issued.

The move comes after other countries have also extended animal welfare protections to cephalopods, including New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and Switzerland.

In 2021, the UK announced that octopuses, crabs, and lobsters would be recognized as sentient beings after a government-commissioned review concluded its highly likely they feel pain and distress. That review defined sentience as "the capacity to have feelings, such as feelings of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort and excitement."

As a result, some crustaceans and cephalopods received protection under the country's animal welfare laws.

As protections for cephalopods become more common, a company in Spain has also proposed killing more than one million octopuses a year at the first-ever factory farm of its kind.

The controversial proposal involves submerging the octopuses alive in freezing water in order to kill them, sparking concern from scientists and animal rights activists.