 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mark Meechan believed his sentence set a "really, really dangerous precedent" 
 
 A man who filmed a pet dog giving Nazi salutes before putting the footage on YouTube has been fined £800. Mark Meechan filmed his girlfriend's pug, Buddha, responding to statements such as "gas the Jews" and "Sieg Heil" by raising its paw. He was arrested after police were alerted to the clip, which has been viewed more than three million times. Following a trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court in Lanarkshire in March, he was found guilty of posting material that was "grossly offensive, anti-Semitic and racist". But Sheriff Derek O'Carroll found him guilty of a charge under the Communications Act that he posted a video on social media and YouTube which was grossly offensive because it was "anti-Semitic and racist in nature" and was aggravated by religious prejudice. Image copyright Press Team Image caption Meechan with his girlfriend's pug, Buddha 
 
 Fining Meechan £800, the sheriff told him: "The centrepiece of your video consists of you repeating the phrase 'Gas the Jews' over and over again as a command to a dog which then reacts. "On the whole evidence..I found it proved that the video you posted, using a public communications network, was grossly offensive and contained menacing, anti-Semitic and racist material." Sentencing due of Mark Meechan, convicted after training his girlfriend’s pug to do Nazi salute pic.twitter.com/izSRQqBocZ — James Matthews (@jamesmatthewsky) April 23, 2018 
 
 Dozens of supporters, including former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, were outside the building on Monday. Image copyright PA Image caption Meechan waved to supporters as he emerged from court 
 
 Image caption Supporters staged a free speech protest outside court 
 
 He defended the video, saying the whole point of the "joke" was "the juxtaposition of having an adorable animal reacting to something vulgar". Speaking outside court, he claimed the case set a "really dangerous precedent for people to say things, their 
 
 context to be completely ignored and then they can be convicted for it". Image copyright PA Image caption Tommy Robinson, former leader of far-right group the English Defence League, supported Meechan in court 
 
 There was a demonstration outside court by protesters claiming the case went against the principle of freedom of speech. Ross Brown said his client was concerned about the impact his case could have on comedians such as Frankie Boyle and Ricky Gervais. After the guilty verdict last month, Gervais wrote on Twitter: "A man has been convicted in a UK court of making a joke that was deemed 'grossly offensive'. "If you don't believe in a person's right to say things that you might find 'grossly offensive', then you don't believe in Freedom of Speech." The scene outside Airdrie Sheriff Court where Mark Meechan was fined £800 for YouTubing clip teaching girlfriend’s pug Nazi salute @skynews pic.twitter.com/Bp8OooDWey — James Matthews (@jamesmatthewsky) April 23, 2018 
 
 Mac Convery outside Airdrie Sheriff Court.
– He says he was just trying to annoy his girlfriend; a Scottish court decided in March it qualified as a hate crime. Now, Markus Meechan will have to pay roughly $1,100 over the video he posted in April 2016 that showed his girlfriend's pug making a Nazi-like salute. The BBC reports the video, titled "M8 Yer Dugs a Nazi," was viewed more than 3 million times. In it, Meechan repeatedly asks his girlfriend's dog, Buddha, if the pug wants to "gas the Jews" in what appears to be an attempt to get him to react to the phrase, and teaches him to raise his paw to the command "Sieg Heil." Sheriff Derek O'Carroll, who issued the fine, didn't buy the 30-year-old's excuse, and Sky News reports he also noted that Meechan's girlfriend wasn't a subscriber to the YouTube channel he posted to. "The fact that you claim in the video, and elsewhere, that the video was intended only to annoy your girlfriend … is of little assistance to you," O'Carroll said. "A racist joke or a grossly offensive video does not lose its racist or grossly offensive quality merely because the maker asserts he only wanted to get a laugh." Meechan disagreed, saying context mattered: "This is a really dangerous precedent to set—for people to say things and their context to be completely ignored and then they can be convicted for it." He says he'll appeal. The BBC notes Ricky Gervais tweeted a take in line with Meechan's last month: "A man has been convicted in a UK court of making a joke that was deemed 'grossly offensive.' If you don't believe in a person's right to say things that you might find 'grossly offensive', then you don't believe in Freedom of Speech." Gervais followed up with a joke of his own Monday: "Can't believe the pug got off scot-free."