By Tim Saunders on
Heroes star Hayden Panettiere was back in Japan last week to demand an end to dolphin hunting.
The star returned to Taiji – along with her boxer boyfriend Wladimir Klitschko – to try to gain a meeting with a local mayor, but was refused entry. The star was last in Taiji to protest in 2007, when she joined Australian actress Isabel Lucas and other activists in a peaceful protest to raise awareness of the 25,000 dolphins slaughtered by the nation every year. The group narrowly avoided arrest over the incident, but succeeded in diverting international media to the abhorrent and barbaric practices used to butcher the animals.
“We are trying to peacefully come up with better ideas as to how to generate income and utilise the nature here,” said the actress, who is a spokesperson for the Save The Whales Again campaign. “We’ve been to Taiji before and it’s a beautiful place with beautiful wildlife. We just wanted to have a very peaceful and relaxed conversation.”
Taiji was also the setting for the award winning documentary The Cove.
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