Kimberley Chen Is Trapped in Tiny Tank in PETA’s New Plea to Skip Marine Parks

Taipei — Singer, actress, and model Kimberley Chen, appearing visibly distraught and trapped underwater in a cramped glass tank, has teamed up with PETA for a new campaign that proclaims, “A Tank Is Not a Home.” The striking visual appeal—which urges viewers to empathize with the marine mammals held captive at marine parks, where they’re forced to spend their entire lives trapped in tiny tanks—was shot by renowned photographer Joshua Lin, with hair by stylist Zack Lee and makeup by Molly Wang.

Credit: PETA

 High-resolution versions of the ad in different sizes are available here.

In an accompanying video, the “Fragile” singer says that she collaborated with PETA for this campaign to “let people know what it’s like to be captured and stuck in a tank for your whole life.” She hopes the public will see that “there are so many better ways to understand our marine life than to have them captured.”

“Dolphins and other marine animals held captive at these parks are kept in miserable concrete tanks where they’re unable to dive deep, feel the ocean currents, or do anything else that’s natural and important to them,” says Chen. “These sensitive animals belong in the ocean, not exploited by marine parks for human entertainment.”

In nature, whales, dolphins, and other marine animals live in large, complex social groups and swim vast distances in the open ocean, but at marine parks they can only swim in endless circles inside tiny tanks. They are forced to perform meaningless tricks, used for interactive experiences in which members of the public are allowed to pet or kiss them, and often torn away from their families when they’re shuffled between parks. Many die far short of their species’ natural life expectancy.

Governments around the world are recognizing that dolphins and other cetaceans don’t belong in tanks. Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, and Croatia have all banned the practice of keeping cetaceans in captivity. But in Taiwan, countless marine mammals are still held in captivity, including beluga whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals and manatees, many of whom were captured in the wild and trained to perform demeaning tricks and interact with visitors.

Chen joins a long list of celebrities—including Maggie Q, Han Geng, and Shu Qi—who have teamed up with PETA to promote kindness to animals.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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