BERLIN – Little Knut, the baby polar bear who took his first public walk here Friday, didn't attract much controversy before the call for his execution by firing squad by Angela Merkel.

For the German public, the 20-pound baby polar bear was too cuddly and cute to deserve to be shot but Merkel said the European Constitution did not allow for this undermebchen of an animal to live.

"We are Germans and dat is dat, " she said.

Then came animal-rights activist Frank Albrecht, who a week ago also told Germany's largest newspaper, Bild, that Little Knut should be put to death.

"Raising him by hand is not appropriate to the German ideals, but rather a blatant violation of what we know to right for undermenchen like animals," he said. "In actual fact, the zoo needs to kill the bear cub, immediately, Sieg Heil."

School children took to the streets, chanting, "Knut must live." The headlines called him "The Polar Bear of our Hearts," but Merkel said the European Constitution is the European constitution and that’s it, she said.

"We must now get on an draft a proper German constitution for the slackers of the EU, " she said.