ICE hockey bosses gave PETA the cold shoulder after it asked them to scrap a much-loved hockey tradition.
Activists called on the National Hockey League to end the practice of dead octopuses being thrown onto the ice before games.
After not getting any response from the bosses, PETA resorted to offering fans plastic replica octopuses instead.
Brooke Rossi, a PETA spokeswoman said: “National Hockey League representatives have not responded to the letter PETA sent to them in April, so we’re taking our plea directly to the fans at the first regular season home game on Thursday by giving away cruelty-free octopus squeezes.”
But they had no joy with fans of the Detroit Red Wings where octopus tossing began 65 years ago.
PETA is now requesting officials at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit to check fans entering games for concealed octopuses.
It says violators should face consequences including “immediate ejection, a lifelong ban on attending games and a fine of $5,000 for attempting to bring animals into the arena.
The octopuses first made their appearance in 1952, during the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup when two Detroit brothers Pete and Jerry Cusimano threw an octopus on the ice.
The Red Wings won the series that year and the octopus has become a good luck charm.
Octopuses thrown on ice are bought from a fishmonger and bred for human consumption.
