Liam Neeson has a movie coming out but all the actor wanted to talk about Wednesday night during his appearance on “The Daily Show” was New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed horse carriage ban.
“I’m a little bit pissed off at our elected new mayor,” Neeson said. “He wants to close this horse and carriage industry in New York. There was a poll last week. Over 60 percent of New Yorkers want to keep the horse carriage industry in Central Park.”
Host Jon Stewart gave some push back, but Neeson persisted.
“These organizations want to put out this — all this false information about how these horses are treated. And these guys treat these horses like their children,” he said.
De Blasio “won’t even take a meeting with the horse carriage industry. He is supposed to be representing the New York people,” he complained.
During a 2009 appearance on Stewart’s show, Neeson also spoke out passionately in favor of the horse carriage industry.
De Blasio made clear just days before his inauguration that banning New York City’s iconic horse carriages would be a priority of his administration for some inexplicable reason.
“We are going to get rid of horse carriages, period,” de Blasio said, siding with activists who view the industry as inhumane.
Neeson has publicly spoken out against the proposal since de Blasio assumed office in January.
After being blasted for never visiting the stables where the horses are kept, de Blasio agreed to go last week, but insisted it wouldn’t change his mind.
“I’ll look at the stables,” de Blasio said at a press conference. “[But] the bottom line is, we know where we’re going on this.”
