Man charged in 'Nazi' dog case
A man who allegedly trained his dog to give a raised-arm Hitler salute has been charged with breaching Germany's strict anti-Nazi laws.
The dog's 54-year-old owner was questioned by police after members of the public in the Berlin suburb of Lichtenrade complained that they had see the two of them saluting together.
The dog, a German shepherd crossbreed named Adolf after the German dictator, is also said to have performed the trick in front of two policemen.
Nazi symbols and gestures, including words and actions which can be interpreted as condoning Nazism, are illegal in Germany.
The man, named only as Roland T, is accused of wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Hitler and shouting Nazi slogans.
Pictures in the German newspaper Bild showed the man with a Hitler-style toothbrush moustache.
The court will have to decide whether he was mentally responsible for his actions.
But Carola Ruff, of a Berlin animal welfare group, said there was nothing strange about Adolf's behaviour.
"Raising a paw is what they're born to do," she told Berliner Kurier newspaper, adding that a dog could be trained to do almost anything its master wanted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3194360.stm
A man who allegedly trained his dog to give a raised-arm Hitler salute has been charged with breaching Germany's strict anti-Nazi laws.
The dog's 54-year-old owner was questioned by police after members of the public in the Berlin suburb of Lichtenrade complained that they had see the two of them saluting together.
The dog, a German shepherd crossbreed named Adolf after the German dictator, is also said to have performed the trick in front of two policemen.
Nazi symbols and gestures, including words and actions which can be interpreted as condoning Nazism, are illegal in Germany.
The man, named only as Roland T, is accused of wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Hitler and shouting Nazi slogans.
Pictures in the German newspaper Bild showed the man with a Hitler-style toothbrush moustache.
The court will have to decide whether he was mentally responsible for his actions.
But Carola Ruff, of a Berlin animal welfare group, said there was nothing strange about Adolf's behaviour.
"Raising a paw is what they're born to do," she told Berliner Kurier newspaper, adding that a dog could be trained to do almost anything its master wanted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3194360.stm
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