09/30/2026
‼️VADYM OLEY NIK: WILDLIFE IS NOT A PROP!😡‼️
📍 Ras Al Hadd, Ash Sharqiyah South Governorate, Oman 🇴🇲
I’m reposting this because what Vadym Oleynik was shown doing to this protected sea turtle was absolutely DISGUSTING 🤬.
There is something profoundly disturbing about seeing a vulnerable wild animal and deciding that your response should be to sit on it, handle it, laugh, pose for a camera, and interfere with its hatchlings.
Call the behavior what it was: callous, reckless, entitled, disrespectful and devoid of basic compassion for a living animal.
And this wasn’t an animal approaching a human. This was a human entering the animal’s natural environment and choosing to physically interfere with wildlife during an extraordinarily vulnerable part of its life cycle.
Oleynik subsequently apologized and reportedly said that he did not know the rules. But this goes beyond knowing whether a sign says “Do not touch.” You should not need a law, a warning sign, or a wildlife officer standing beside you to understand that you do not climb onto a sea turtle for entertainment.
That is what makes this video so upsetting to me. The issue wasn’t simply a violation of a rule—it was the apparent absence of respect for another living creature in that moment.
UPDATE: Oman’s Environment Authority subsequently announced that legal action had been taken in connection with the incident and reiterated protections surrounding sea turtles and their nesting areas.
Sea turtles already face enormous obstacles simply surviving from hatchling to adulthood. They do not need humans adding themselves to that list.
Vadym Oleynik, wildlife is not your playground. A sea turtle is not a chair. A hatchling is not a toy. And an endangered or protected animal is not content for social media.
Observe. Respect. Protect. LEAVE WILDLIFE ALONE!!
AnimalProtection MarineConservation OceanConservation RasAlHadd Oman ProtectWildlife
