The Hunger Games actress Jena Malone was part of a crowd of onlookers who took matters into their own hands when a man was allegedly seen abusing a dog near Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood on Tuesday.
Malone was reportedly in her car when she spotted a man “repeatedly kicking a small white dog, yanking the animal in the air and choking it,” according to reports.
Malone reportedly pulled over, jumped out of her vehicle, and elicited the aid of others nearby to come to the animal’s rescue.
“I yelled at him to stop from my car, but he wouldn’t,” Jena Malone told her Twitter followers.
In a series of tweets describing her encounter, Malone added, “So I started chasing him. I saw other people watching on the street upset, as they must have seen the same abhorrent behavior I witnessed, so I tried to signal a man in an orange vest to run with me to chase him.”
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She noted that she asked bystanders for help because she didn’t want to confront the man by herself. And she then let the crowd voice their displeasure at the man.
“So, at this point I held back and let them take the lead as I have no business trying to restrain a full-grown man. I went back to get my car (it was still running) and drove to see if they caught him,” she tweeted.
Malone added that the crowd that chased the alleged dog abuser ran after him for “six blocks” but she stayed behind to care for the dog and wasn’t part of the attack on the man.
The actress added that dog had been abused “for months.”
She also said that veterinarians later determined that the dog had multiple broken bones:
Malone went on to tell her Twitter fans that she was sure the dog “was going to die. No question” unless she intervened. Ultimately, officials found that the dog, a 6-year-old Maltipoo named Champion, had been chipped and its owner was found. The owner claimed that the animal had been missing for a week.
“Update: the dog was chipped and back with his owner. The dog had been missing for a week. His name is champion and is happily out of hospital and with his owner. Watch out for the go fund me link soon. His multiple surgeries will be a lot for the owner to take care of alone,” Malone tweeted in a final update.
Video of the assault on the alleged dog abuser shows a group of men punching and kicking the man and one even using a pole to beat the man.
The attackers held the suspect until the police arrived.
Animal rights group PETA praised Malone’s actions, giving the actress its “Compassionate Action Award” for helping to save the pup’s life.
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