Around 50 animal welfare activists picketed Taken star Liam Neeson's New York home on Saturday, after the actor's public support for the city's carriage horses.
Liam wrote a passionate editorial for the New York Times this week, lending his support to the famous New York carriage horses which provide rides for tourists around the Central Park area.
Liam Neeson is a vocal supporter of New York's carriage horse trade (WENN)
The actor wrote the piece after Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to ban the carriages and replace them with electric vintage-style cars. In his editorial Liam wrote "It has been my experience, always, that horses, much like humans, are at their happiest and healthiest when working".
He called the horse carriage trade a "humane industry that is well regulated by New York City's Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene and Consumer Affairs."
Protestors picket the actor's home on Saturday (WENN)
Animal welfare activists don't agree with the actor though as a group of demonstrators picketed his Upper West Side home yesterday. While there was no sign of Liam, the activists were watched by a police presence, with the protestors holding signs with slogans like "Liam Neeson: Stop Supporting Cruelty!"
The activists signs displayed some strongly-worded slogans (WENN)
Peter Wood, an animal protection investigator insists it's cruel for the horses to be subjected to traffic and possible accidents. "It's 2014, not 1914. It's time for a change," Wood told press as he protested.
"Horses don't belong in traffic, surrounded by buses. They don't belong in the city; it's outdated, it's cruel. Life attached to a carriage with a poop bag attached to your rear end — that's no life."
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