The dog, called Buddha,

raised his paw when he heard ‘gas the Jews’ and ‘Sieg Heil’ (Picture: SWNS)

A man who taught his girlfriend’s dog to do the Nazi salute whenever he said ‘gas the Jews’ has denied committing a hate crime.

Mark Meechan, 29, was arrested for teaching the pug Buddha to put his paw up like a Nazi salute when prompted by statements such as ‘Heil Hitler’, ‘Sieg Heil’ and ‘gas the Jews’.

The defendant from Coatbridge in Lanarkshire, Scotland, filmed the dog unknowingly responding to the anti-Semitic phrases and watching footage of Adolf Hitler at a rally at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

He was arrested after posting the footage on his YouTube channel Count Dankula in April last year, calling the video ‘M8 yer dugs a Nazi’. He is now on trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court.


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Meechan has been accused of communicating material that would cause fear and alarm and stir up hatred on religious grounds by posting a clip which was ‘anti-Semitic in nature’ online.



He also faces an alternative charge of posting a video on social media and YouTube which was grossly offensive because it was ‘anti-Semitic and racist in nature’ and the prosecution claim it was aggravated by religious prejudice.

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PC Colin Duff, 31, played the video of the pug in court, saying that it was still widely available to users and was continuing to rack up thousands of hits a day. It has now been viewed more than 2.8million times.

Meechan is heard saying in the video that he got the dog to do the salute to annoy his girlfriend, 29-year-old Suzanne Kelly.

‘My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute and adorable her wee dog is, so I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing I could think of – which is a Nazi,’ he said in the clip.

He also made the dog watch a Hitler rally from the 1936 Berlin Olympics (Picture: SWNS)

He claimed he only taught the dog to be a Nazi to annoy his girlfriend (Picture: SWNS)

It then shows a montage of the pug perking up whenever he hears Meechan say ‘gas the Jews’ and lifting his paw when Meechan says ‘Sieg Heil’ to him.

In a second clip, also shown to the court, Meechan apologised for causing offence with the dog video.

‘I am not a racist at all, anybody who knows me could tell you that,’ he said. ‘I’m freaked out because everyone’s going to actually think that I hate Jews now and I don’t at all. I’m kind of panicked about it.

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‘Honestly I don’t hate anyone. The whole purpose of this was just to annoy my girlfriend.

‘I just want everyone to know that I don’t wish any ill-will on any race or anything, it’s just how shock comedy works. It was strictly made to annoy my girlfriend and give my friends something to laugh at.

‘I am so sorry to the Jewish community for any offence I have caused them. This was never my intention and I apologise.’

PC Duff added that More than 40,000 people now subscribe to the Count Dankula channel – up significantly from the 400 who followed it when ‘M8 yer dugs a Nazi’ was first uploaded.