The horror of odori-don

Putting aside its authenticity, the horrendous video termed "possibly the most controversial food dish on the planet" compels me to react.

At the risk of hurting the feelings of the individuals who perpetuate this abominable behavior, I would like to point out the irony of what I have seen. The first Cephalopods that appeared on this planet are 420 times older than the first Homo Sapiens. The question that needs to be asked therefore is whose evolved?

Proponents of the video suggests that the animal feels no pain because it's brain has been removed. How dumb is that? How does a pianist play a complicated piece of music? Have they not heard of muscle memory and is that not an integral part of consciousness? To use the videos own argument, would the person cut off a white pointer sharks head while leaving their arm inside it's open mouth and say that the shark won't bite'because it can't think anymore. The real reason they cut this poor creatures head off is because with it, they would be too cowardly to do what they are doing. These individuals would never dare to pick on a creature that can fight back.

In minimalist philosophy sentience is merely the capacity to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively. But it is far more than that. It is at the very core of consciousness.  Any sentient being is entitled, at the very least, to empathy and by implication, deserves protection from unnecessary suffering. This video is an abomination to the word.

I have witnessed the intelligence of Cephalopods first hand and believe that these magnificent creatures have an emotional consciousness that would enable them to almost certainly feel pain as we would. Judging by the video, we appear to be oblivious, callous or just not smart enough to understand how they communicate that pain.

You don't need to be a biologist or naturalist to work out that some of us have been left behind in evolutionary time. Thankfully, most of us have not. I beg you therefore to judge for yourself whether or not we really need to treat these shy creatures with the disrespect that the video shows or whether we are better human beings than that. This barbaric behavior has to stop.