After watching this video posted by Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) featuring a trainer putting lipstick on a Beluga whale, you might be thinking, “you’ve got to be kidding me!” Unfortunately, this is very real and certainly no joking matter.

The whale is part of a show at the Sun Asia Ocean World and Polar World in Dalian, China. While the public has expressed disgust and concern for the use of lipstick on the whale, this revealing video points to a much larger issue – a blatant disrespect for wildlife.

If you trace this Beluga whale’s journey to the aquarium, you would likely be horrified by learning how these innocent animals end up being a pawn for human greed and entertainment. Most of these captive cetaceans are a result of the Beluga captures in Russia and the cruel dolphin drives and slaughters in Taiji, Japan. Sadly, OPS reports that the use of these magnificent animals is only growing in Eastern Asia.

Thanks to documentaries like Blackfish and The Cove, people are becoming more aware of the plight of captive marine life, but more needs to be done. Aquariums and marine parks work hard to make people believe these animals are happy, but nothing could be further from the truth. These captive creatures have been torn from their families, forced into tanks a tiny fraction of the size of their wild habitat, coerced into performing tricks, and deprived of any sort of natural or happy life.

To learn more click here and here.