When PETA and AWM teamed up to do a PSA about Sea World’s inhumane practices, the problem of orca exploitation was already widely known. So it was a challenge to figure out how to keep the issue in the public eye.

Conceiving and filming an original and shocking piece of performance art in New York City’s Washington Square Park was a fresh approach, and demonstrated in real time what it’s like when baby whales are separated from their mothers. A committed group of improv actors pulled no punches in depicting the heartbreaking brutality of these practices for an unsuspecting audience, who learned first hand about how they can help end this shocking display of animal abuse.