Intelligent life or just smart food?

I WAS surprised last week on the radio when a woman asked me to stop eating octopus, because the animals were so intelligent.

The woman was from the Sea Life aquarium in Bray, Co Wicklow. It’s part of an international chain, with aquaria all over Europe and America and the campaign is global.

I was surprised for a couple of reasons. First, there’s no great precedent for human beings making dietary choices based on the IQ of their food. In Korea, people eat dogs; in Japan, dolphins; in west African markets, illegal ‘bush meat’ includes monkeys and apes. Eating intelligent creatures is not confined to far away places; the Irish consume many pigs every year and, as a former pig keeper, I can attest to the fact that they’re exceedingly intelligent.