Hate crime conviction for man who trained pug to ‘Nazi Salute’

A Lanarkshire man has been convicted for training his girlfriend’s pet dog to perform a Nazi salute in response to statements.

Mark Meechan filmed the pug, called Buddha, raising his paw to statements such as ‘gas the Jews’ and ‘Sieg Heil’.

Police were alerted of the clip, which has been viewed more than three million times on YouTube, and arrested Meechan on the basis of hate crime.

Sheriff Derek O’Carroll found him guilty for communicating a ‘grossly offensive’ video because it was “anti-semitic and racist in nature” and was aggravated by religious prejudice.

Meechan claimed he created the video just to annoy his partner, however the phrase ‘gas the Jews’ is repeated over 20 times in the video clip.

Some believe that Meechan may have been producing a video for ‘comedic effect’. Comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted in response to the story saying: “A man has been convicted in a UK court of making a joke that was deemed ‘grossly offensive’.

“If you don’t believe in a person’s right to say things that you might find ‘grossly offensive’, then you don’t believe in Freedom of Speech.”