While filming a new season of the Korean period drama series, The King of Tears, Lee Bang-Won, a horse who was on set suffered a serious injury, that could have easily been prevented. He then died just a week later. The horse’s maiming occurred during a scene in which the title character is riding the animal and then falls off. To create this “falling-off-the-horse” effect members of the production team thought it was necessary to knock the horse off their own feet and have them fall to the ground.
According to the group, handlers had connected the horse’s legs to a wire, which staff then pulled intensely to force the poor animal to fall over — while it was in the middle of running through a forest with a human on its back. Video footage showed the dark-colored horse running full-speed with a stunt double on its back and a rope tied around a leg, before members of the filming crew pulled the rope and caused the horse to fall violently to the ground, according to a news source.
Source: K Teach/Youtube
The Korean Animal Welfare Association correctly says that this was dangerous for both the horse and the actor, and both “were at risk of being severely injured.” Through this accident, KBS has acknowledged s a problem with the way that scenes of falling from a horse are filmed. To prevent an incident like this one from occurring again, they stated that they will find another way to film and portray these dangerous scenes. Animal safety is fundamental, and we must hold KBS accountable moving forward. People across South Korea have been speaking out against this neglect and mistreatment, and it’s time for us to add our voices to theirs! Sign the petition to demand nationwide protocols to protect animals on film sets in South Korea!
To continue speaking up, sign these other petitions as well:
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