The fact that there wasn't already bothers me. Octopodes are extremely intelligent creatures and we've known this for a while. Not that I think intelligence should be how we base our treatment of animals, but it is one of the bigger factors when laws about this sort of thing get made, so I would have expected it to be taken into account before now.
The only one you should ever actually use in English is “octopuses,” which is correctly used by Nature in their article and in the linked NIH proposal. It’s the right term for both everyday use and for academic and legal purposes. Octopus is a common English word and warrants the standard English plural.
Protections seem probably more important for putting them through unusual experiences that may involve suffering than killing them for food, as that's essentially predation which they experience as a natural part of life
There's an argument to be had that we as humans are intelligent enough to choose not to put animals through that which is why lots of folks choose to be vegan, but eating animals is more of a personal ethical choice, whereas funding research conducted on animals kinda needs to be a societal one given it's funder by other parts of society, and research is generally for the benefit of society; so society needs to be the ones to decide whether the research is ethical. Not sure I articulated quite what I mmea, but hopefully what I'm trying to say makes sense
Just because something happens naturally doesnt make it ethical. For example a ton of animals (including humans) cannibalise but that doesn't make it ethical.
it's really fucking stupid. We give care and consideration to pets, and if we did to pets what we do to the animals we eat, we'd get locked up for years. It's called speciesism.