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28 March 2024

Two took dog for ‘spin’ in washing machine

A YouTube screenshot shows a man putting a poodle into a washing machine in Hong Kong.

Published

Hong Kong Police have arrested two men for alleged animal cruelty after their video showing one of them putting a poodle into the washing machine went viral, according to Apple Daily.

Close on the heels of another such controversy (Read: Dog 'cleaned' in washing machine sparks anger in Hong Kong), this time around the video has resulted in the nabbing of the culprits.

The two suspects are being identified only by their surnames Leung, 38, and Wong, 22, and the arrests were made early Friday morning following a month of investigations in response to a complaint filed by Hong Kong's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

In the 21-second video that first appeared on YouTube on July 28, one man was filmed as he placed a small brown poodle inside a washing machine even as the dog seemed to be struggling to climb out of the machine.

However, the apparent joke suddenly turned serious when the man down the lid on the dog and appeared to press some buttons to operate the machine. This led the other man, who was apparently shooting the video clip, to panic. “Are you serious? Are you crazy? You idiot!” he can be heard saying in the clip.

It was not known if the machine was actually switched on.

During the raid at their apartment, officers found a similar poodle that wasn’t hurt.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong police said they had launched an animal cruelty investigation after another man joked online about killing a dog by trapping it inside a churning washing machine.

An image uploaded to Facebook by a man calling himself Jacky Lo shows a small, white dog attempting to climb out of the machine, while another apparently portrays the animal struggling to keep its head above water with the washing cycle in full flow.

A police spokeswoman told AFP that a case of suspected animal cruelty was under investigation.

“A picture has been posted onto the internet about an animal suspected of being tortured. It is a case of animal cruelty,” the spokeswoman said.

“Lo” said he posted the pictures to show “a super quick way to bathe a doggy”.