Adventure movie star Jena Malone, who is known for action films like The Hunger Games and Sucker Punch, helped save a dog from being abused, with the pup later being reunited with its owner.
NBC LA initially reported the story on April 5, which saw a group of people chasing down a man with a dog and beating him. A witness later told the news outlet that they saw the man abusing a dog. Confirming the interaction on her Twitter account, Malone told NBC LA that she “pulled over and started chasing” the man because she saw him treating the dog in a way that was “absolutely not OK.”
“I saw a man kicking repeatedly a small dog on the sunset, yanking him up in the air and absolutely choking the dog,” she explained on Twitter. “I yelled at him to stop from my car but he wouldn’t. I got out of my car to try and get the dog but he started running. So, I started chasing him. I saw other people watching on the street upset, as they must have seen the same abhorrent behaviour I witnessed, so I tried to signal a man in an orange vest to run with me to chase him.”
Malone added that “after another block of chasing him down, [she] looked back and there were 5 other men behind me pursuing him. Which felt like a miracle.” After seeing the five other men chasing the dog, Malone said she “let them take the lead,” adding that she has “no business trying to restrain a full-grown man.”
“I didn’t see the brawl but I was told that the man did not give up the dog without a fight,” she wrote. The actor added that the footage caught by NBC LA was the “tail end” of the “heated fight,” and said she stayed with the police until she was sure the dog was being cared for.
and this is the tail end of a heated fight that ensued. The cops came and took the guy. I waited with dog til another cop came to take them to the hospital. The dog was covered in filth and looked like it had been not taken care of for months https://t.co/3ftY18M3Ap
— Jena Malone (@MaloneJena) April 6, 2022
According to Malone, the man wasn’t bleeding and was “coherent” after the brawl, and said that the dog was back with its owner after being “missing for a week.” The actor also claimed that the dog had various injuries including a fractured rib, broken legs, and a paw fracture. Sharing a purported GoFundMe for the dog, the actor said it would need various surgeries.
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
— Jena Malone (@MaloneJena) April 6, 2022
“I’m sorry that it ended in a brawl but the dog was going to die,” the actor said in another tweet. “No question. I can’t imagine the level of torture it had suffered until this point.”
Clearly, Malone shares the same heroic, fighting spirit as Johanna Mason, a District 2 tribute from the thriller series. All The Hunger Games movies are available to watch on streaming service Netflix.