Sensitive, intelligent cephalopods (octopi, squid, and cuttlefish) can feel pain. They can—and do—suffer in experiments. These facts make it clear: the U.S. government must urgently adopt safeguards for these sentient creatures.

Cephalopods are increasingly used in research, but do not have any legal protections to ensure their humane handling. Now, a Congressional group wants to change that—and you can raise your voice, too.

On October 11, 2022, nineteen Members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter urging the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to instate protections for cephalopods used in research.

Back in 2020, we at Rise for Animals led a coalition of organizations, scientists, and citizens in a petition to the NIH to take identical action. Soon after Harvard University’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic filed the petition on our behalf, NIH indicated they’d make moves on the cephalopod protection issue. But now, over two years later, the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) still has neither provided guidance on the humane treatment of cephalopods in NIH-funded research nor sought public comment on the issue.

Nineteen lawmakers have had enough waiting for protections of cephalopods—and so have we. We hope you’ll join us in putting pressure on NIH to help protect thinking, feeling cephalopods from the undue harms of research.