Man behind ‘washing machine’ dog photos on the run

Jacky Lo, the young man in Hong Kong who sparked outrage on Facebook after posting Facebook pictures of a dog in a washing machine, is on the run, according to the South China Morning Post.

Hong Kong police are searching for him after the 23-year-old allegedly uploaded photos of a white Westland Terrier swirling around the inside of a washing machine and struggling to keep its head above water.  Although the photos first went up last month, the photos of the dog in the machine and sopping wet on the floor outside began to be widely shared on Facebook over the past week. His comments, calling it a "clean and quick" way of washing a dog, triggered nationwide outrage.

Animal activist groups like Hong Kong’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) have spoken out in condemnation of the user's alleged actions, and a petition seeking action from the authorities has garnered more than 21,300 signatures over less than four days.

But who exactly is Jacky Lo?

Local news reports and Facebook pages say his Mandarin name is Luo Jiamin, and was born in 1989 in Guangdong, China. According to the SCMP,  Lo appears to have skipped town, appearing to have boarded a flight from Hong Kong International Airport to mainland China but not before posting a link to the online petition, saying, "Wanted?? This afternoon I'm going back to China. See ya later."

Lo was believed to be staying in the Tuen Mun area of Hong Kong’s new territories, and according to independent local Facebook page 香港高登綜合台, has a white 2008 Lamborghini car registered to his name.

A Weibo account belonging to a user calling himself "我是JackyLo” claims the information published about him is false, however, and that his Facebook identity was stolen. The Weibo user also insists in one post that he did not travel to Hong Kong.

Other reports say the wealth Lo flaunted on his now-deactivated Facebook page is largely a pretense — Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily reported that Lo pretended to be from a wealthy family by posting photos of himself posing with luxury cars, but the owners of the cars said they did not know who he was.

A school in Tuen Mun also released a statement saying Lo was not in any way related to it, much less having schooled there before, after he claimed to be a student there. Apple Daily also reported the existence of a photograph Lo uploaded flaunting rolls of HK$100 bills, which it said were likely to be fake because they lacked serial numbers.

AFP reported on Sunday that Hong Kong police have yet to make any arrests relating to their ongoing investigation into the alleged animal cruelty.