The Los Angeles City Council has declined a donation for two police dogs after one city leader raised concerns that the canines were trained by a company that shares its name with a Nazi mountain compound that was built for Adolph Hitler.
City Councilman Bob Blumenfield said he didn't have an issue with the dogs, which were paid for with a nearly $27,000 donation by the Los Angeles Police Foundation, a nonprofit independent group that has long bankrolled equipment for the LAPD and offered other support the department. Blumenfield said his main concern was that the Riverside County company that supplied the animals, Adlerhorst International, shares "the name of the Nazi bunker used by Adolf Hitler during World War II,'' the Los Angeles Times reports.
"This company is a company that is glorifying Hitler's bunker, and it's a company that is dealing with German shepherds, of which there's all that history with the Holocaust,'' Blumenfield said. "I don't know that's the intent of this company, but in reality it's a creepy name that shouldn't really be associated with a company like this. They've had plenty of time to deal with it, and I can't support doing business with a company that's glorifying Hitler's bunker."
Nestled in the Bavarian Alps, Adlerhorst, which means "Eagle's Nest'' in German, was a complex built for Hitler during World War II. The location also served as the Nazi leader's command post in December 1944 and January 1945.
Adlerhorst's president, Michael Reaver, said he didn't understand the council's decision and had no intention of changing the company's name.
"We have no affiliation with any Nazi anything, we're just like everyone else, we look back at the Nazis and we consider that to be a horrible period of mankind," Reaver said.
"In Germany, it's not a name that is associated with the Nazi Party whatsoever," he added.
