The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Outrage as Scot teaches doy to do Nazi salute
Pet reacts excitedly on hearing phrase ‘gas the Jews’
Jewish leaders have slammed an “outrageous” viral video which shows a man teaching his girlfriend’s dog the Nazi salute.
Markus Meechan, from Coatbridge, trained the pet to react to the phrase “gas the Jews” and filmed him in front of Hitler videos.
He insists that he is “not a racist”, and says he made the film – which has been seen more than 809,000 times – to wind up his girlfriend.
But the video has been condemned by the Jewish community and raised concerns about casual anti-Semitism in Scottish society.
The clip begins with Markus, who goes by the name Count Dankula online, saying: “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 then turns to the pug-breed dog and asks: “Buddha, do you want to gas the Jews?”
The dog begins to jump around excitedly as Markus encourages him.
The video continues with several short sequences of Buddha reacting to the phrase “gas the Jews” by pricking his ears up, lifting his head and wagging his tail.
The dog was also taught to raise his paw in an imitation Nazi salute when he hears the phrase “Sieg Heil”.
One one occasion, Markus praises the animal and asks: “Who is a good wee Nazi?”
The video ends with him saying: “I’m not racist by the way, I just really wanted to p*** her off”.
On Tuesday Markus posted a social media status from Reykjavik in Iceland which read: “Mate I am here, released the Buddha video then fled the country.”
A leading Jewish group has now called for a zero tolerance approach to online material that targets Jews or makes light of the Holocaust.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities said: “Anti-Semitism is not something that can in any degree be regarded as a joke.
“It is a form of racism that needs to be condemned just as we would any other form of racism.”
The council’s director, Ephraim Borowski, challenged Mr Meechan’s suggestion that he was not a racist.
He said: “To regard the meticulously planned and industrialised murder of six million people solely on the grounds of their ethnicity as a joke is outrageous, and for someone who does so to claim not to be racist beggars belief.”
One person, who commented on the video, wrote: “Maybe one day this guy and those who find this humorous will experience something as terrifying as that which happened to the Jews and learn what is and isn’t cause for humour.”