[Full text] KBS, Okawa TV Series "The King of Tears, Lee Bang-won " apologizes for animal cruelty debate ... Also reveals that the horse in the accident was dead

The Korean KBS side apologized for the animal cruelty debate in the TV series "The King of Tears Lee Bang Won" raised through the animal rights group.

KBS announced on the afternoon of the 20th, through an official position, "We are deeply aware of our responsibility and apologize for the accident that occurred during the shooting of 'The King of Tears Lee Bang Won'."

Added that the actor was far away from the horse at the time of shooting, and the horse's upper body also hit the ground.

Also promised to consider a new shooting method to prevent such accidents from repeating. KBS said, "We will try to find other ways of shooting and expressing, and we will try to find ways to ensure the safety of animals at various shooting sites through the advice of related organizations and experts."

Prior to this, the debate on animal cruelty by "The King of Tears Lee Bang Won" was swelled by raising the issue of "Animal Freedom Solidarity", an animal rights civil society group.

On the same day, "Animal Freedom Solidarity" posted a video containing a scene from "Taiso Lee Bang Won". The group pointed out that actor Kim Young-cheol, who plays the role of Lee Sung-ge, wraps his ankle with a fishing line while riding on a horse, and criticized it as animal cruelty.

Below is the full text of KBS's official position.

We apologize.

We deeply feel responsible for the accident that occurred during the shooting of <The King of Tears Lee Bang Won> and apologize.

The accident occurred on November 2nd last year when we were filming the fall scene of Lee Sung-ge, which was broadcast on EP7 of <The King of Tears Lee Bang Won>.

Shooting the fallen horse scene is very difficult. The safety of the horse is fundamental, because the safety of the actor riding the horse and the safety of the staff who shoot it must be taken into consideration. To this end, the production team has been in the process of preparing and checking for possible accidents for several days.

However, despite these efforts, at the time of the actual shooting, an accident occurred in which the actor was far away from the horse and the horse's upper body hit the ground. Immediately after the accident, the horse stood up and returned after confirming that it was not apparently injured. Recently, however, viewers worried about the condition of the horse have become more concerned, and we have reconfirmed the health of the horse, but unfortunately we have confirmed the fact that the horse died about a week after shooting.

We have to take a deep sense of responsibility for the occurrence of such a pitiful incident. We would like to apologize to all the viewers for the unfortunate things that happened because we could not prevent the accident.

KBS confirmed that there was a problem with the shooting method of fallen horses through this accident. However, we will try to find other methods of shooting and expression so that such an accident will not happen again. In addition, we will try to find out how to guarantee the safety of animals at various shooting sites through the advice and cooperation of related organizations and experts.

Once again, we would like to sincerely apologize to the viewers and those who love animals.

January 20th, 2022