Octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish are increasingly recognised as sentient animals, prompting calls for welfare protections in laboratory settings.
Cephalopods present a unique welfare challenge: they are cognitively sophisticated yet phylogenetically distant from vertebrates, making the extrapolation of suffering difficult. Evidence from injury studies suggests they experience nociception and show motivationally significant responses to painful stimuli. In laboratory settings, octopuses in barren environments show stereotypic behaviours indicating psychological stress. Providing environmental enrichment, appropriate handling protocols, and humane endpoints in research improves welfare outcomes and often experimental validity simultaneously.