Liam Neeson often plays the hero on the screen, but this week in New York the actor got the chance to play the good guy for real when he came across a group of animal-abusing punks.
Neeson was reportedly going for a jog in Central Park when he heard a woman calling for help. When Liam went to investigate, he found a group of teenagers throwing rocks at a stray dog they had cornered.
Liam Neeson wasn’t having it, and decided to take on the teens .
“Liam charged down a path and confronted three gangbanger wannabe types,” a source told the National Enquirer. “Liam yelled that they’d bette stop or he’d knock the c**p out of them — but the punks just swaggered up and warned him to mind his own business. In a fury, he warned them to back off fast – or else!”
Police arrived during the confrontation, and the attackers decided to back off, the source said.
“Liam just shook his head and approached the shivering dog, stroking it while the policeman assessed its injuries,” the witness said.
This isn’t the first time that Liam Neeson has become involved in Central Park animal matters. Though not quite as dramatic as his dog rescue, Liam stepped into a debate about the park’s iconic horse-drawn carriages, fighting to keep them in the park .
Neeson was responding to a proposal from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called the horse-drawn carriages inhuman and put forward a plan to ban them.
Neeson told the New York Post that the proposed ban would be getting rid of a piece of New York City history:
It’s criminal! This is an iconic, historic part of New York. The horses are incredibly well-treated. They’re regulated up the wazoo. They get five weeks’ holiday every year. Tourists love them.”
There was no word on what happened to the rock-throwing teens, but they likely learned their lesson — don’t pick on dogs when Liam Neeson is around.