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Actress Calls for End to Whaling
'Heroes' Star to Meet With Ambassdors to Advocate Change
Actress Hayden Panettiere called for an end to commercial whaling and increased advocacy against this practice in the international arena during a speech Sunday in Gaston Hall.
Last year, Panettiere, who currently stars in the NBC television series “Heroes,” joined other representatives from the Save the Whales Again! Campaign on a trip to Japan to gain a close-up of the whaling industry as well as protest the resulting extermination of whales and dolphins.
The 18-year-old actress said this experience helped her understand the dangers that dolphins faced as well as to create a larger platform from which the organization could rail against the practices.
“For years, people have been combating [whaling],” Panettiere said. “But within a day, with that footage we got [from Japan], it helped astronomically.”
The Animal Welfare Institute, which founded the original Save the Whales Campaign in the 1970s, uses celebrities to help market their message. Panettiere has joined actor Pierce Brosnan and Australian star Isabel Lucas in fighting for whales in this campaign.
Jeff Pantukhoff, executive director of the Save the Whales Again! Campaign, joined Panettiere at Georgetown, asserting that there is much work left to be done.
“We’re still basically where we were 30 years ago,” he said.
Pantukhoff and Panettiere said that their efforts are focused on Japan, Norway and Iceland, the three countries that have not banned whaling and together kill approximately 3,000 whales a year.
“Seventy-seven percent of Japan is opposed to whaling and 75 percent of Americans are opposed to whaling, but the governments just don't represent what the people want,” she said.
While in the District, Panettiere plans to meet with the ambassadors of these three countries, as well as various U.S. senators.
Panettiere said she primarily came to Georgetown in order to make younger people aware of this problem and to elicit their support.
“A college campus is where young people are,” she said. “And that’s what I’m trying to do is get the word out to young people.”
Panettiere said that she hopes younger people will listen to her because she is a peer rather than an adult.
“I’m a normal teenager,” said Panettiere. “I do everything you guys do.”
During the question-and-answer session, the discussion turned more light-hearted as students asked Panettiere about her acting career and even tried to obtain her phone number.
“I didn’t go in caring about whales at all, but I came out of it with a new appreciation for the problem,” Jason Kestecher (COL ’11) said.
“I thought it was informative, and it gave me a real perspective on celebrities and their genuine concerns,” Alexander Reback (MSB ’11) said.
The speech was sponsored by the Lecture Fund.
Lecture Fund actually paid for this? Other than being an attractive young blonde, why should we care what she has to say about whales? If you want to invite her to speak about acting, then, ok, this makes sense. But would you invite King Abdullah to campus to speak about the NBA?
I am sick and tired of celebrities being given a platform on the various media outlets to speak about their flavor of the month cause. With the saturation of celebrity opinions in the media, why does Lecture Fund need to spend the student's money to bring another one to campus to speak?
Regardless of what your opinion is on whaling, there are much better people out there to lecture about the practice. A panel of marine biologists and industry representatives could have been organized. But instead it appears that looking for a pretty face with an empty one sided message was an easier and more popular alternative.
Actually, I believe the lecture fund was contacted by Hayden who wanted to reach out to students. Would you rather they turned her down???? She's doing a very respectable thing, it's to bad you can't recognize that.
I think that Iceland recently banned commercial whaling. Now it is just Japan and Norway.
According the article, Lecture Fund "sponsored" the event. Normally, this word entails financial support, but perhaps I am wrong. And yes, I do believe they should turn her down. Whaling, like many of the other environmental and social issues of the world, are much too complex to have a partially informed celebrity be the one to explain it. If Ms. Pantierre wants to come to campus to talk about something she is actually expert in, then fine. But Lecture Fund should reserve the stage for people who can actually give positive and fully informed viewpoints, rather than just people who have pretty faces. This is an academic institution, not a fashion show.
It's a shame that you obviously did not attend the event and listen to her because although she is not an expert, she is well informed on the issues. She was also accompanied by scientists at the lecture. The Save the Whales again campaign was created by organizations who have been involved with whaling for many many years. Yes, she does have a pretty face and she is using it to reach an audience that probably knows very little about whaling. I see nothing wrong with that.
Whales and dolphins belong to the world, not to the Japanese.
So do every other species of animal. If whales and dolphins were endangered, then a stronger case can be made here. At one time, this was in fact the case, and credit to the first wave of "save the whales" people, most species of whale are no longer endangered or at risk. So why the continued world fetish with saving the whales? There is no movement to save the tuna or the salmon. There are, however, movements for sustainable fishing practices. Why not push for sustainable whaling instead of vilifying anyone who would dare to hunt the cute little whales?
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