aespa's Winter Gets Criticized For How She Treated Her Hamsters During Her Childhood

aespa‘s Winter was recently criticized after a netizen shared a couple of messages from her Dear U. Bubble subscription. Winter had shared about a childhood incident where she raised hamsters.

“When I was schooling, I raised 25 hamsters.”
“No, I was sure I started with only 2!”
“But I guess they got along very well!”
“So it came to be 25 hamsters!”
“When they were first born, it was really cute. So baby-like!”
“Then later on, it was decided for me to only raise one of them which was a little sick, so I only raised that one.”

에스파 윈터님 왜 이러세요
어릴 때 몰랐다는걸 자랑스럽게 얘기 좀 하지마세요 pic.twitter.com/E3IVl8pVM6

— 그레인(곡식) (@WholgraiN) August 31, 2021

However, she was soon criticized for her mistakes in taking care of the hamsters. Of course, it was possible she wouldn’t have known in her childhood due to her young age. However, hamsters should not be raised in a small space all together, for various reasons. Firstly, hamsters can eat their own young if raised together. Secondly, hamsters have a tendency to fight with each other and living with other hamsters may cause stress. Netizens were quick to comment on the anecdote.

“It seems like she doesn’t think correctly of the lives of animals.”
“This isn’t it. It’s even more so not it to speak of this like that. It’s understandable that she did that because she was young but now that she is an adult, she needs to know that this is something to be ashamed of.”
“SM really should educate her strongly on how to present herself.”
“Oh my…”
“When I was young too, I knew nothing and I wanted to save the hamster in front of my school and raised a few of them. They are very sensitive animals so they quickly died and whenever I think of it, I get so sorry and I live while reflecting. She’s not speaking of the past while reflecting but she seems to be bragging as if she’s appealing with her selling point and that’s the problem. She’s an adult but she’s saying that as if she’s bragging. If you’re someone that raised hamsters before, you will know that for 2 to become 25, how the hamsters would have had to act and you would know what the outcome would be. Apart from her last line about only raising one, the rest seems to be a little thoughtless.”
“Is this some blank-paper beauty? Why is she being obvious that she’s dumb… Please just stay still. They became 25 from 2? Isn’t it normal for anyone to know 100% that there’s some sort of problem here? Even if it’s fine to have been like that when you were young, I think she still doesn’t know the issue when she’s all grown…”