😳

Thank you flying squid people. 🙇

What kind of sad existence would a being with a measly 10 arms be able to lead? 12, and not fewer, as the gods intended!

Octopuses is the English plural and most commonly used, but I personally use octopodes just cause I just like how it sounds lol.

I agree. I'm not in a position to be vegan myself, but I have a lot of respect for vegan ethics and people who are able to make that sacrifice. But I think it would be a mistake for a government to mandate that you can't consume animal products. Maybe someday? Not sure how I feel on that subject. But I think its appropriate for there there to be safeguards against unethical research, but I think the choice to consume an animal product or not still needs to be an individual choice.

That being said, I think cannibalism is a bad example of something unethical happening in the wild. Cannibalism is taboo and considered unethical by humans because it involves killing a person, the eating them part is just weird and seen as desecration of a corpse in our culture. But its not any more unethical for a preying mantis to eat another preying mantis than it would be for it to eat some other bug. Perhaps a better example would be rape among primates or dolphins? since thats likely to create similar distress in the way it takes a way an animals autonomy as it does for humans. The concept of ethics starts getting a lot muddier when removed from the context it was created in- human society. Ultimately ethics is a manmade construct that by and large just describes pro social behavior, which is why I think rape among primates is likely to be a strong example of something unethical amongst animals: they are social enough have a concept of society and a level of expected behavior from their peers around them.

Regardless, I don't think using the government to mandate that people can't consume animal products would be a mistake, as those who are currently too far from understanding your perspective would be radicalized by it and it would stymy cultural progress towards a more intuitive sense of animal welfare. (I understand that may not be an argument you're making, I'm just kinda expressing my thoughts on the subject since its topical both to your point and the idea someone expressed that maybe eating them should be protected by the government also)