Scottish security guard filmed ‘teaching his girlfriend’s dog to make a Nazi salute, reacting to the phrase ‘gas the Jews’ and watching videos of Hitler’
Jewish leaders have condemned the video which the man claims was "only supposed to be a joke"
SHOCKING footage has captured the moment a former security guard taught his partner's DOG to make a Nazi salute and react to the words "gas the Jews".
The horrendous clip, recorded by Markus Meechan from Scotland, has attracted almost one million views on Youtube.
And the video, which Jewish leaders say "beggars belief", has been shared widely on social media after it was released just over a week ago.
The footage shows Mr Meechan, who goes by the online nickname "Count Dankula", teaching a pug-breed dog named Buddha to respond to the revolting anti-semitic phrase about gas chambers and to raise its paw in an imitation Nazi salute when it hears the words "Sieg Heil".
28-year-old Meechan from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, also films the dog watching speeches made by Hitler on a TV screen.
The 1 minute 30-second clip is titled: "M8 Yer Dugs a Nazi."
At the end, Meechan insists that he is a not a racist, but is only trying to play a "joke" on his girlfriend, Sue.
Meechan, who lists his occupation on Facebook as "social nuisance", claims the purpose of the video is to "p*** her off".
So far it has been watched more than 750,000 times and was featured on the front page of the popular content-sharing website Reddit, as well as on other sites around the internet.
The clip has raised concerns about growing anti-semitism and has prompted a leading Jewish group to call for a zero tolerance approach to online material which targets Jews or seeks to make light of the holocaust.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities said: "Antisemitism is not something that can in any degree be regarded as a joke.
"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."
And the council's furious director Ephraim Borowski directly challenged Meechan's claim 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."
Some viewers have accepted the video to be intentioned as a joke. But many were outraged with one saying: "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."
The Community Security Trust, a charity which monitors anti-Semitism in the UK, recorded 1,168 incidents in 2014 - up from 535 the previous year.