Hayden Panettiere Gets Real on ‘Heroes’ and Her Mission to Save Dolphins

So, the last time you were here, the whole cast was here and Heroes was just starting and and now it's a huge hit. Huge hit. Congratulations.

Are you having fun? >> I am. I'm currently unemployed, but so if anyone wants to hire me. >> Yeah, just you have a little time off right now.

Little break. All right, so is this something that you would have done beforehand or is this something you cuz I love the fact that you're using obviously people are paying attention because of who you are.

>> Yeah, you know, I think it just makes it that much more powerful is is the fact that the show has just brought such success to to me and to my castmates and you know, it's about being a hero and you know, it's kind of kind of rubbed off

on me, but I don't think if I if I was as recognizable in the public eye that it would have made as much of an impact. So, I think it's really important to use that, you know, to our >> agree and obviously cuz you got involved

with people who have been doing this for a long time. There are a lot of people that go out there and try to peacefully save these dolphins. So, tell people what what you were doing exactly and

what they do. >> Um basically, this is something that actually happens about 6 months out of the year. >> 6 months? >> Yeah, and they do it every single day.

They will go out in these big boats and they'll stick big poles in Japan specifically Taiji, which is a beautiful place. I mean, I want to make this very clear. Japan was one of the most beautiful countries I've ever

been to. It's amazing, the people are amazing. But they go out and they herd all these dolphins and whales into a bay area and they basically slaughter them and just the way they do it is so

completely inhumane and we went out there and and tried to do a peaceful ceremony. >> Well, can I ask why they do it? Why do they lure them in and why do they slaughter them?

>> It's for reasons of of money and not only are we trying to stop the dolphin and whale slaughter, but we're trying to educate the Japanese people that whale and and dolphin meat is actually highly toxic. It's It's They're basically poisoning themselves by eating them.

And as we all know, our government likes to tell us whatever they want us to know and whatever they want us to think. And they're not aware of that. So, we're trying to protect them as well.

And they'll also take other dolphins and they'll sell them to SeaWorld's for hundreds of thousands of >> Mhm. Okay, so uh let's show We're going to show some footage that I think we can show. I mean, this is hard for me to watch.

Um and we don't even show what happens, so it's not disturbing to watch, but just knowing what's going to happen after this. Uh you can talk over it and uh here is uh >> That's one of the slaughter boats.

Those are actually pilot whales, which were the catch of the day, I guess. >> Are they already caught in the nets? It's This is you and everyone going out trying to circle around them.

>> It's all of us paddling out. This was the second day. The bay is blood red. I mean, it was so red that you could stick a paintbrush in it and paint a picture from all