TERRENCE HOWARD MIGHT LOVE ANIMALS MORE THAN PEOPLE

Terrence Howard, 38, has a soft spot in his heart for cats and dogs.

“I’ve been an animal lover since I was a baby,” the Oscar nominee tells me during doughnut-and-cupcake fueled interviews for The Hunting Party. “I like people a lot, but I love the hell out of little animals. Every penny I ever give to charity has always gone toward either the ASPCA or I’ll go by a veterinarian shop and I’ll give them two or three thousand dollars just so that they will have a fund there.”

What inspired him?

“I lost a number of animals because I didn’t have the money to get them fixed, to help them after they’d been hit by a car or attacked by a dog. I wanted to make sure that no little kid had to cry because he had to watch his cat being euthanized because he didn’t have the $2,000 necessary to fix it.”

So sweet... and he’s humble too.

“I don’t publicize any of that because I believe that gifts from the heart should be just that. They’re made in the heart and they’re given in the heart. A lot of times people are looking for that public pat on the back. Like Jesus said about people praying out in the middle of the streets so everybody can hear them — he said ‘that’s their reward right there.’ They get the pat on the back, and everybody says, ‘Good job, look at you, you’re a good person.’ But the one that’s praying in the closet in quiet, that’s the one who God hears. That’s my own personal crusade.”