“I know what it feels like to be completely helpless”. 💔 Hayden Panettiere did not just say that she loved animals. For years, she used her fame to defend them and, in 2007, she even put her own safety at risk to try to save a group of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.
The actress traveled to the area alongside other activists and surfers to protest the dolphin hunts. When the animals were herded into a cove, Hayden and the group entered the water on surfboards and tried to get close to them to prevent them from being slaughtered. They were intercepted and had to return to shore, but images of that protest traveled around the world and helped draw attention to what was happening there.
Her commitment did not end that day either. Hayden worked for years with organizations dedicated to marine conservation and used interviews, campaigns, and public appearances to denounce the hunting and captivity of marine animals.
“But the difference between us and animals is that we have a voice and they do not”, she once explained when speaking about what drove her. “So it is our responsibility to be their voice”.
Hayden did not manage to save those dolphins that day, but she did manage to get many more people to look toward a place and a practice they probably did not know about. For her, defending them was never just something to say in front of a camera. She got into the water and tried to do it 🐬💔