After wife declines to attend VIP pet funeral for sister-in-law's dog,

husband calls her 'cold-blooded,' mother-in-law joins in with abuse

Not directly related to this article. [Image generated by AI]
Not directly related to this article. [Image generated by AI]

A claim that a husband pressured his wife to wear full mourning attire and deliver a eulogy at his sister's dog's funeral has stirred controversy online.

A post appeared Tuesday on an online community in which a user said her husband had called her a "psychopath" after she refused to dress in mourning clothes and read a eulogy at her sister-in-law's dog's funeral.

The author, identified only as A, said she is a working professional in her third year of marriage. She described a series of events that unfolded at her husband's family home after his unmarried sister in her 40s lost a dog she had raised like her own child.

According to A, the sister-in-law would bring the dog in a pet stroller every time she visited for holidays and never helped prepare holiday food because she was busy tending to the animal.

Even so, A said she sent the sister-in-law a message of condolence, writing that she fully understood the grief of losing a pet raised for so long, and transferred 100,000 won ($74) as a token of sympathy, suggesting the sister-in-law use it to buy porridge or nutritional supplements.

The conflict escalated the following day when her husband made increasingly demanding requests. He told A that his sister had reserved the VIP room at a premium pet funeral home on the outskirts of the city and that A was required to take a day off work and attend.

"He even told me to come dressed head to toe in a full black formal mourning outfit, complete with a black ribbon," A wrote. "I was dumbfounded and asked whether a sister-in-law really had to burn a vacation day and show up in mourning clothes for a dog's cremation — and that's when my husband lost it."

The husband reportedly told her: "To my sister, that dog was like her own child. She's on the verge of collapsing right now. How hurt do you think she'll be if her own family acts so indifferently? Come in mourning clothes, bow twice, read the memorial letter in the eulogy segment, and stay through the candlelight prayer."

A said her husband had even sent her a script via messenger for a eulogy to be read to the deceased dog at the funeral. When she said she could only stop by briefly because the following day was a key quarterly briefing chaired by her division head and she could not take the day off, he told her he "couldn't live with a psychopathic cold-blood like her" and called his mother to complain.

"Now my mother-in-law has joined in, calling me a heartless so-and-so," A wrote. "Does refusing to wear mourning clothes and read a eulogy at a sister-in-law's dog funeral make me a psychopath?"

Readers who came across the post reacted with disbelief. "How have you lived with people like that until now?" one commenter wrote. Others called it "a makjang drama series," said "it's an unreasonable demand with no logic whatsoever," and asked "are they in their right mind, telling someone to use vacation days and wear mourning clothes?"


jshan@heraldcorp.com