Hayden Panettiere joins fight to end dolphin hunt

[HMG] – It’s a wonderful thing when celebrities use their fame for good causes, and in her second appearance on this blog in two days we now bring you news of Heroes star, Hayden Panettiere doing just that.

Hayden and her 6’6″ companion, Wladimir Klitschko traveled to Taiji, a small fishing village of less than 3,500 people in southern Japan, to be part of a campaign to persuade local people to end their annual dolphin hunt.

Hayden, 20, and a small group of environmental activists tried to meet with local fishermen who catch all the animals, but were denied entry to the town hall where the group were holding a meeting.

“We’re just trying to come up with better ideas to generate income and utilize the nature here,” Panettiere told CBS reporters. “We’ve been to Taiji before and it’s a beautiful place with beautiful wildlife.”

The group then visited the local fisheries union, but both it and fishermen they met on the dock had no interest in talking.

And this is not Hayden’s first try at stopping the hunt, in which up to 2,000 dolphins are killed — She was also part of a protest in 2007 when she paddled out into the cove where it’s done. The locals forcibly broke up the protest, but film from that day can be seen in the new documentary “The Cove,” which just won an Oscar.

Locals regard the hunt as a historic ritual, but environmentalists slam the killings as cruel and unnecessary and point to studies that prove dolphin meat contains levels of mercury so high, they can kill.

They were also not moved by the humanitarian claims, pointing out that Westerners kill cows. They even wanted President Obama to apologize for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945.

Hayden’s presence gave the expedition a great deal of publicity, but her effect on the fishermen is probably slight;

“The more pressure we put on them, the more they will pull back and cut us off,” advised local resident Chiho McBennett, who joined the group after becoming concerned by the mercury issue.

So, what do you say, guys? Will Hayden be the hero, or are more dolphins doomed?…