This TV Show Injured a Horse to Death, All to Film a Dramatic Stunt Scene
While filming a new season of the Korean period drama series, The King of Tears, Lee Bang-Won, a horse on set suffered a serious injury — and died a week later as a result. Even worse, this injury was preventable. As part of the show, the title character needed to ride a horse and then fall off his steed. But in order to create this falling-off effect, members of the production team decided to put both horse and rider in grave danger by connecting the horse’s legs to a wire. Then, while the animal was in mid-run, staff pulled the wire with all their might, yanking the animal down on the ground — shocking and maiming it in the process.
The broadcasting corporation behind the show, KBS, released a statement apologizing and saying it had “prepared” to ensure that filming would be safe for the horse, but that’s clearly just not true. People across South Korea have been outraged by this neglect and mistreatment, demanding that TV and film producers do better. As actor Yoo Yeon-seok said on his Instagram account, “There shouldn’t be any more scenes where animals are killed for money and time. The safety of stunt actors must also be guaranteed.” The South Korean Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs has promised it will work on creating guidelines for the media industry on how to keep animals safe — but “guidelines” are simply not enough. Sign the petition to urge South Korean lawmakers to listen to the people and pass strong, enforceable regulations to protect animals’ well-being in the entertainment and media world!