Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had the temerity to bring his children to the Georgia Aquarium over the weekend, and take sweet pictures of his family interacting with fish, whales, and other sea creatures housed at the state-of-the-art marine facility.
The Rock even shook hands with one of the aquarium’s beluga whales.
A post shared by therock (@therock) on Aug 5, 2018 at 1:39pm PDT
He even posted a video of him having a heart to heart with a sea lion.
But what was clearly meant to be a charming family outing turned into something of a nightmare when animal activists realized Johnson was entertaining his children by taking them to a “fish jail.”
According to Fox News, they quickly took to social media to express their displeasure at The Rock’s choice of family pastime, turning The Rock’s Instagram comment sections into — appropriately considering the marine theme — deep pools of filth.
“This animal just need to be back in the ocean!!!” one user wrote in the comments to the star’s instagram photos (of course).
“Stop spreading propaganda. The Georgia Aquarium takes animals from their native waters so they can exploit them for profit. These animals don’t belong in tiny chlorinated pools,” another user wrote. “This is animal abuse.”
That last comment isn’t entirely true. Like many of the nation’s aquariums, Georgia Aquarium is also a conservation and research facility that learns from its captive population in order to improve conditions for beluga whales overall. The Rock didn’t take his children to a fish-themed amusement park — though even those have improved dramatically since animal welfare experts began demanding orca whales and other marine life kept in captivity be treated well — he took his family to a research facility with windows.
Fortunately, other Instagram commenters were more flattering. In a quip below the beluga picture, one observer wrote, “what you’re looking at is one of the most magnificent creatures on the planet…and a beluga.”