Octopus

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Meet Kali,
a captive baby octopus,
who spent her whole short life in a barrel
because the public aquarium
had no tank for her.

As she grew,
each time her captors took
the lid off the barrel,
she thrust herself
upwards,
tentacles reaching up and out,
increasingly desperate
to be free of the barrel,
she, whose rightful home
was the deep blue sea.

Finally, staff adapted
a glass enclosure for her,
as best they could,
and watched her day of joy
as she explored
its every inch.

But they had failed to
tightly seal around a pipe
and octopuses are masters
at escape.

Next morning, they found her
dead on the floor,
a high price to pay
for one short day
of joy.

I just read Sy Montgomery's Soul of an Octopus, an Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness. The author befriended ocopuses at a research aquarium, and also dove to see them in their natural habitat in the ocean. But the story of one baby octopus was distressing.

The book is a fascinating study of these intelligent creatures, but I grew more desperate as I read for her captors to get her out of that barrel. Animals suffer in captivity; it is their nature and birthright to be free, and whatever humans gain from learning about them in captivity isn't worth what it costs the animals. We should study them respectfully in the wild. Or leave them alone.