Animal rights activists gathered in Madrid on Sunday to protest a plan to build an octopus breeding farm in Spain, saying the country and the European Union lack laws guaranteeing the welfare of animals in captivity, The Associated Press reports.
The proposed farm aiming to raise large-scale captive octopuses is scheduled to be built next year in the Canary Islands.

Dozens of people came to express their dismay at the project, which plans to keep 3 million octopuses in ponds, even though these creatures are solitary predators in their natural habitat.

Nova Pescanova, the seafood production company promoting the project, argued that octopuses bred in captivity would behave differently than they would in the wild.

“It is not possible to grow any [animal] species in the European Union without respecting their welfare conditions. It is the standard, and our group does nothing but comply with guidelines and legislations,” said Roberto Romero, the company’s Aquaculture Director.