The president of the United States, Joe Biden, complained this Wednesday about the “poisonous atmosphere” that surrounds Washington. The Republicans ignore his calls for harmony, but it seems that they pet him, too. First lady Jill Biden’s office has announced that the president’s German shepherd, Commanderhas been transferred from the White House for his repeated violent incidents, which include biting members of the staff and the secret service, which is in charge of protecting Biden.
Commander He is a two-year-old German Shepherd. The latest incident took place on Monday, when he bit a member of the secret service. It is the 11th confirmed episode of aggressive behavior by Biden’s pets, most of them involving Commander against secret service agents, although it is believed that there are more undocumented attacks.
In a statement from the first lady’s office, in which the destination of the dog is not specified, the spokesperson points out that the Bidens “care deeply about the safety of those who work in the White House and those who protect them every day.” . She also says they “remain grateful for the patience and support of the United States Secret Service and everyone involved as they continue to seek solutions.” In July, when it emerged that violent incidents involving the president’s dogs were numerous, the first lady’s spokesperson indicated in another statement that the White House complex “is a unique and often stressful environment for pets.”
It was the conservative activist group Judicial Watch that revealed 10 attacks by the German shepherd on secret service officers and agents between October 2022 and January 2023 thanks to 194 pages of documentation delivered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Judicial Watch says it filed the request after receiving a tip about the German shepherd’s behavior. Among those documented incidents are the biting on the arm and hand of an officer, who had to be treated in the hospital in November 2022.
Commander He arrived at the White House at three months old in December 2021. Biden then posted on Twitter a welcome message with a video in which he could be seen playing with it. “Meet the new Biden,” he wrote. The Bidens had recently fired Champ (Champion), one of his two German shepherds, who had died in June at the age of 13. Major, Another of the president’s German shepherds was already transferred in 2021 for at least two bite attacks in the presidential residence. Major He went from living in an animal shelter to the White House, but did not adapt to the rules of his new home. Both he and Champ They were then transferred, but only the latter returned to the White House.
A deep-rooted tradition
With his dogs, Biden recovered the tradition of American heads of state having a pet, broken only in a century by Donald Trump. It is a tradition so deep-rooted that there is even a Presidential Pet Museum.
Most presidents have had a dog or a cat, but there have also been much less common animals. The first president of the United States, George Washington, who served from 1789 to 1797, had more than a dozen horses and 12 dogs, according to the Presidential Pet Museum website. Thomas Jefferson, president between 1801 and 1809, had two bear cubs and a nightingale. John Quincy Adams (president from 1825 to 1829) kept none other than a crocodile in the presidential residence, which he kept locked up in one of the bathrooms. William Howard Taft, who served from 1909 to 1913, was the last to have a cow on the White House lawn, like quite a few other presidents before him. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) had several snakes; William McKinley (1897-1901), a parrot; and William Henry Harrison, a goat in the 32 days he was president in 1841, before dying of pneumonia. Abraham Lincoln He had almost a farm in the White House, with a pig, a turkey, a rabbit, ponies, goats, dogs and cats.
Although they fall into the pet category presidential elections, not all the animals have lived in the White House, but sometimes they were transferred to the zoo or were found in other places. This helps to understand that President Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) and his wife had several dogs, a donkey, some canaries, a goose and a lynx, as well as lion cubs, a pygmy hippopotamus, a bear and a wallaby, which They were given gifts by foreign leaders.
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