The above photo has been circulating on the Korean internet under the name “Devil Equus”. On April 22, a Hyundai Equus was seen driving along a motorway in Seoul with a dog behind the car dragged on a leash. This caused an immediate uproar amongst netizaens, including prominent foxy celebrity Lee Hyori who took to twitter to condem the incident. Lee Hyori is a passionate animal rights activist. She is vegetarian and even stopped wearing all animal fur and leather products. However, as the driver had been cleared as innocent by the police, he was reported to be threatening to take legal action against Lee Hyori for “defamation of character”.
From Lee Hyori’s twitter:
22 April 2012:
As a same human being, I am sorry and ashamed.. I wish you are not reborn as a powerless dog in your next life.
on 24th April:
After the Equus driver was cleared as innocent, he called our office and threatened us that he will sue me for defamation of character.
So I said I did hope that it was only a mistake, not an intention, and to feel free to sue me.
Whether it was a mistake or not, I wrote that to say that I was sorry and ashamed to be a same human being as the person who had caused such suffering to a living thing. I don’t even know the name of the person, so how could I have defamed his character? But if that was a crime then I will allow myself to be sued and will accept the punishment.
The background story (as told by the driver and testified by witnesses) is that the driver was given the dog by his friend and because the dog had stepped in faeces and the driver didn’t want the interior of his car get dirty, he decided to put the dog in the trunk of his car.
He proceeded to tie the dog by the leash inside the trunk and left the trunk slightly open because he was worried that the dog might suffocate if he closed it. But while he was driving home on a motorway, somehow the dog managed to get outside the car, got dragged by its leash and died.
As the photo was propagated online, the police got involved and investigated the case. However, they failed to find any mal intent on the part of the driver, and concluded that the case was just an unfortunate accident and cleared him of all charges. The driver himself is reported to be extremely shocked by the accident and deeply sorry for his mistake. He also says that he had no idea how great the issue had become on the internet because he is computer illiterate, and he therefore only got to know about his new nickname “Devil Equus” from the police that investigated his case.
When asked about the legal action against Lee Hyori, he said:
I don’t even know how to call to Lee Hyori’s office. I just wish for this all to be over, do you think I would do that? But today I had received a call via the police, the person asked: Is this Oh XX? so I replied: Yes, it’s Oh XX speaking. The caller said that someone had called them saying that he would take legal action. But we have cleared the misunderstanding. I’ve always been a really big fan of Lee Hyori.
Comments from Nate:
강성호
The important part
1) the dog died a horrible death
2) the car owner had admitted it was his fault
But the important thing is – why should the car driver apologize to netizens or Lee Hyori?
Should he hold a press conference, drop on his knees and apologize or what?
박찬석
Did the police really investigate it properly? I can’t trust police anymore…
김세종
There are still some morons who can’t understand the reason Lee Hyori is receiving criticism.
Everyone knows she does this because she pities the dog.However, this was an unfortunate mistake caused by a momentary error of judgement on the side of the driver. But now because of Lee Hyori people are thinking about him as a sort of devil, psychopath, killer.
This is Lee Hyori’s problem. ke ke ke ke ke ke ke On one hand, she thinks a lot, on the other hand, she doesn’t care about how things really are. She is thoughtless.
김태석
Have you investigated properly about Lee Hyori’s plagiarism?????
If others do it, it’s adultery, when she does it, it’s a romance….
박정현
Lee Hyori really speaks too much~ Are the police some punch bag or what?
이병진
A new article came out. Let’s stop the witch-hunt. Nowadays car trunks have a switchgear inside which enables the trunk to be opened from inside. So if you really have bad luck, such active dog like beagle can open the trunk from inside. And looking at how he cares for the other animals he keeps, he doesn’t look like an evil person, And in a way he did try to put in some safety catches, even thought it might have been careless, I’m saying we should not treat this as though he killed the dog on purpose. There are people, who criticize that he put the dog into a car trunk, but how many people would put a dog smeared with stool onto the back seat?
And it’s even quite hard to say that putting a dog into a car trunk is an abuse. Of course in case of a person it would be an abuse because a person can even sit in the trunk. But in case of a dog, his body size is much smaller than the trunk, so can we really call that abuse? If we see it this way, then people who transport a dog or a cat in a portable cage would also be maltreating them. Also, this dog was given to him by his friend (even his friend testified this), so it wouldn’t really make sense for him to kill the dog on purpose. Also, nowadays you wouldn’t really do such thing while keeping your car’s license plates on, it’s like boasting “I’m a person who abuses animals”, so this makes no sense either. Moreover, are you saying that the chauffeur service driver also lost his mind and helped with this animal abuse too? Does this really make sense? “The restaurant owner + the beagles original owner + Equus car owner + chauffeur service driver” these 4 people all planned to abuse and kill this animal together? From the very beginning that person had no evil intentions, it was just his mistake that was deadly… and he himself admits his fault and he buried the dog. Please let’s first listen to both sides of the story before we start criticizing someone. He himself was sorry to the dog. People don’t even know the relevant facts and come attacking “killer”, “death penalty” and such kind of things… no wonder people get mad and go so far as to threaten to sue Lee Hyori… I’m not saying that the driver made no mistake, I’m just saying let’s not talk about it as if he did it intentionally.
허지훈
You should really keep your mouth shut
최진성
The driver suing Lee Hyori is ridiculous…. but Lee Hyori posting such things while not knowing the exact situation; that is her fault as well. There was a misreported article not long time ago, about a bus driver apologizing on his knees [covered by koreaBANG here], and the people posting comments on that article really are the same sort as in this case.
김원석
Why is Lee Hyori like this? Of course there is some truth in it, but why are public figures frequently saying to the police to do this and that. While she is saying that she is a top star, no matter what that person did wrong, does she think it’s ok if she just stands up and meddles into it like this?
최윤영
Have you properly self-reflected on your plagiarism?
이동익
The Equus driver killed a dog by mistake, but Lee Hyori is killing a person on purpose using her keyboard.
김동진
Lee Hyori really acts like a teenage know-it-all.
박정현
Lee Hyori seems more concerned about a death of a dog than about the death of the girl murdered in Suwon. Maybe she should have a word with dog soup restaurant owner too.
김세종
She is saying she wants to protect animal rights, but killing human rights instead ke ke ke Why are you so thoughtless? I know you are an animal lover but the more you take the dead dog’s side, the more the Equus owner will sink into a pit. Why can’t you consider more than just one side, why can’t you consider the other side of the story? How outrageous. It’s true that the dog’s death is quite pitiful, but do you think the car owner’s intention was animal abuse when he put the dog into the trunk? So what about that driver’s human rights?
