Hayden Leslie Panettiere

Activism
On October 31, 2007, Panettiere joined with Sea Shepherd to try to disrupt the annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. She was involved in a confrontation between Japanese fishermen and five other surfers from Australia and the United States (including former Home and Away star Isabel Lucas) the group. The confrontation lasted more than ten minutes before the surfers were forced to return to the beach, after which they left the country. Parts the confrontation can be seen on the award-winning Sundance Film Festival documentary film, The Cove. The fishermen consider the condemnation as an attack on their culture.
Panettiere told E! News that an arrest warrant has been issued in Japan for her interference in the dolphin hunt, but her claim was later dismissed by the Japanese Fisheries Agency. In November 2007, she was awarded the "Compassion in Action Award" from the animal rights group PETA for her efforts to stop the dolphin hunt in Japan. She is also a vegetarian.
On January 28, 2008, Panettiere handed a letter protest to the Norwegian ambassador in the United States arguing that Norway should stop its hunt for whales. She also delivered a letter to the Japanese ambassador calling for the end Japan's hunting whales. At a 2007 Greenpeace event in Anchorage, Alaska, Panettiere defended aboriginal whaling, saying that there is a difference between commercial whaling and the whaling practiced by aboriginal tribes in the United States.