Animal Rights Initiative

On May 21, 2026, Amanda Fox, Founder and Executive Director of Animal Research Initiative, had the honor of presenting at the Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit Animal & Vegan Advocacy International in Toronto, Canada.

Amanda trained advocates on how to speak the language of policymakers through her presentation, Translatable Revelations of Octopus Advocacy, exploring how lessons from the movement to prohibit octopus farming can be applied to aquaculture, carnivorous agriculture, and other resource-intensive animal industries.

Swipe to view highlights from the presentation.

Originally conceived by ARI Campaigns Manager Joshua Diamond, the campaign began in response to Nueva Pescanova’s proposal to farm millions of octopuses annually. Since then, Animal Research Initiative has sponsored or collaborated on legislation across 10 U.S. jurisdictions, while related legislation has been introduced in Spain, Mexico, and Chile.

The campaign has revealed far more than the incompatibility of farming highly intelligent, solitary, semelparous animals. It has exposed broader concerns relevant to many agricultural systems:

🦊 Ecological risks of farming carnivorous species
🦀 Feeding animals to produce other animals
💧 Harmful algal blooms and wastewater pollution
🦠 Disease transmission pathways
🧬 Genetic divergence between wild and farmed populations
🐙 Biodiversity loss and ecosystem disruption
💰 Economic costs shifted onto taxpayers and local communities

Rather than viewing octopus farming as an isolated issue, the campaign became a lens through which to examine ecological limits, food production, public health, biodiversity conservation, and humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

Book a briefing: calendly.com/amandafox-

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