Hayden Panettiere’s Final Plea for Depressed Dolphins Starts With Six Unforgettable Words
Hayden Panettiere became a household name playing a hero on TV, but in real life, she was a hero to animals.
Just weeks before her passing, the actor and Golden Globe nominee lay inside a bathtub for a raw new campaign protesting marine parks like SeaWorld, as part of PETA’s efforts to get dolphins out of marine parks like SeaWorld.
Today, in tribute to Panettiere’s life and legacy of compassion, PETA is sharing the ad and moving video encouraging everyone to honor her memory by refusing to buy a ticket to any facility that condemns these remarkable animals to a tiny concrete tank.
Panettiere ends the video with a final message: “Vow today to never go to a marine park that keeps dolphins in extreme captivity. Together, we can end this cruelty.”
The campaign marks a poignant final chapter in Panettiere’s fierce advocacy for marine mammals, which grabbed headlines around the world in 2007, when the then-18-year-old paddled into the blood-stained waters of Taiji, Japan, and confronted dolphin hunters during an annual slaughter—a moment captured in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove.
In 2015, she signed a “friend of the court” brief supporting the National Marine Fisheries Service’s denial of a permit for the Georgia Aquarium to import 18 wild-caught beluga whales from Russia. In 2019, Panettiere appealed to President Vladimir Putin to release nearly 100 belugas and orcas slated for transfer to marine parks. The Russian government returned the cetaceans to the sea and banned their capture the same year.
Across the U.S., hundreds of dolphins are forced to live in mini pools or shallow lagoons, where they perform meaningless tricks or participate in tourist encounters, in which they are repeatedly touched and harassed by strangers who have invaded the only space they have, with no way to escape. Many were abducted from their ocean homes and stolen from their families decades ago, while others were born in captivity and have never experienced the joy of swimming in the open ocean.
Panettiere’s compassion didn’t stop at marine animals. She was a cheerleader for other species, including when she halted filming on the set of Heroes to save a flock of birds from a crewmember blasting them with a leaf blower. She was never afraid to call out cruelty wherever she witnessed it, and we hope her legions of fans will honor her legacy by refusing to be silent when animals are suffering.
The world has lost a kind soul and the animals a fierce ally, and everyone at PETA holds her memory close.
