SBS “Animal Farm” Under Fire for Targeting the Hoarding Behavior of Europeans in Captions

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak all over the world, SBS’s Animal Farm is under criticism for using a caption that ridiculed the hoarding behavior of people in Europe.

On a recent episode of the popular animal show, a litter of puppies was shown fighting to get one more bite of dog food.

And along with the footage, the producers of the show captioned it with a remark that has stirred up quite the controversy.

COVID-19: Just like the Europeans that are panic buying/hoarding…

– Animal Farm

This caption has been perceived as ridicule toward people in Europe who engaged in panic buying and hoarding as soon as COVID-19 began spreading rapidly.

As soon as the show was aired, the show was criticized for using an insensitive caption.

So many people in Europe are dying right now because of COVID-19. How can you use captions like this?

There’s nothing funny about COVID-19.

– Netizens

In response to the criticism, the producers of the show released a formal apology and took down the caption.

Hello, this is the director of SBS’s Animal Farm.

Just like many have pointed out, an inappropriate caption related to COVID-19 was added to Episode 963 of Animal Farm. I’d like to formally apologize for causing discomfort in our viewers with a mistake that the producers made.

We plan to delete it on the internet and our rewatching services, and resume the services at around 4 to 5 on April 5.

We will not only pay better attention to the captions from now on, but we will pay better attention to the overall production process as well.

We apologize. Thank you.

– Animal Farm