Nazi Pug, It's Not Your Fault!

Certainly, there is a special place in hell for people who abuse animals. But there should also be a special place in hell for people who make their sweet little pups do Nazi salutes and perk up at the phrase “Gas the Jews,” thus transforming them from blissful bundles of love to unwitting objects of hate. I forgive you, Nazi pug! It’s not your fault! You are still a Very Good Boy, even if you were tricked by a Very Bad Man!

Indeed, the above video is the fault of one Mark Meechan, an alleged comedian in Scotland who trained his girlfriend’s pug to do the “sieg heil” and posted a video of it to his YouTube account in 2016. According to the Associated Press, Meechan was fined £800 on Monday for the video, which was deemed “menacing, anti-Semitic” and “grossly offensive.”

Meechan says the post was a joke, and that the fine set a “really dangerous precedent” for future comedians who dream of dabbling in hilarity like training a gerbil to troll women with online rape threats, or teaching a Ragdoll kitten to call the cops on people of color who are minding their own business.

Still, an overlooked crime here is that Meechan made my grandparents hate a dog, and for that, there is no harsh enough punishment.