A Scottish man was arrested after filming a video of a dog responding to anti-Semitic phrases and imitating a Nazi salute.

The Telegraph reports Markus Meechan was taken into custody last month from his house in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire and later released.

Meechan had uploaded a video to YouTube on April 11, featuring his girlfriend’s pug, Buddha. In the clip, the dog is seen watching a speech by Adolf Hitler and responding to Meechan who says “Gas the Jews.”

Just wanted to ‘piss off’ girlfriend

“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 which I could think of, which is a Nazi,” Meechan says in the video.

Toward the end of the clip, he says he’s not a racist and just “really, really wanted to piss her off.”

Police told The Telegraph the video is “deeply offensive” and that Meechan’s arrest should serve as a warning that “such views will not be tolerated.”

“Anti-semitism is not something that can in any degree be regarded as a joke.”— Scottish Council of Jewish Communities

In response to backlash, the 28-year-old said that it was a private joke between him and his friends that was not intended to go viral, reported The Mirror.

His girlfriend Suzanne Kelly told the paper she was “a bit shocked” when she saw the video for the first time, but defended Meechan’s humour.

“Anti-semitism is not something that can in any degree be regarded as a joke,” said a representative for the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, according to The Sun.

“It is a form of racism which needs to be condemned just as we would any other form of racism, just as we would condemn Islamophobia or anti-African racism.”

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