GERMANY:Give the children a Christmas they won't forget with Adolf the Wunderdog. A Berlin animal shelter is looking for a new owner for the nine-year- old Alsatian cross-breed, trained by his owner to give the stiff-armed Nazi salute.
Adolf shot to fame in 2003 when he performed his party trick for two policemen.
They were not amused - in Germany, the public display of Nazi symbols and gestures is forbidden - and Adolf's owner, a brain-damaged former used car salesman identified by the court as Roland T, was given a 13- month suspended jail sentence.
Last April, Adolf was back in the news when Roland announced he could no longer afford to feed him and would have to put him down. A Berlin tabloid launched a reader campaign and managed to save him.
"No animal should be at the mercy of such an idiot," wrote one incensed reader. "This dog has gone through a martyrdom, he's earned a few years in a good home."
That could now come to pass after Roland once again breached the law on the public display of Nazi symbols last month.
After countless suspended sentences, the court lost patience with him and ordered him to serve five months in prison.
Before starting his sentence yesterday, Roland brought his dog back to the animal shelter where he found him eight years ago.
There Adolf was given a full health check and renamed Adi.
"Now we're looking for a good home for him," said Evamarie König, the spokesperson for the animal shelter in Falkenberg.
Despite his advanced age, Ms König hopes the dog's notoriety will help him find a new home.
However, staff at the shelter have been instructed to take extra care to make sure the dog doesn't fall into the hands of barking-mad far-right extremists.