United States President Joe Biden’s household canine Commander has bitten US Secret Service personnel a minimum of 24 instances, in keeping with the company’s information. That is the newest report of Commander difficult senior brokers.
But, he’s removed from the primary or solely presidential pet to have stirred debate within the US and all over the world.
Al Jazeera takes a take a look at Commander Biden and different presidential pets which have sparked controversies or gained big recognition.
The commander-in-chief and Commander
The Biden’s household pet Commander left the White House last year, one week after a Secret Service agent required medical remedy for a extreme chew.
Commander, a German Shepherd, had a minimum of 24 biting episodes between October 2022 and July 2023 in keeping with launched inside emails posted on-line (PDF).
“The current canine bites have challenged us to regulate our operational techniques when Commander is current – please give a lot of room,” a particular agent mentioned to his staff, including that they “should be artistic to make sure our personal private security.”
The Secret Service confirmed the authenticity of the paperwork.
The Secret Service has beforehand acknowledged that 11 of its brokers had been bitten by the canine.
The emails not solely documented the incidents but additionally mirrored the priority amongst officers. Based on the emails, members of the Secret Service had been bitten on the wrist, forearm, elbow, waist, chest, thigh and shoulder.
Commander Biden joined the household in December 2021 as a pet.
The German Shepherd is the second of Biden’s canines on the White Home to point out aggressive behaviour. One other Biden German Shepherd, Main, was ultimately relocated to stay with buddies in Delaware. Commander can be not on the White Home.
Finland’s Lennu was a scene-stealer
Finland’s late first canine Lennu, a Boston terrier was a star in Finland, and past.
He was usually included in official appearances by President Saulo Niinisto, who will quickly be leaving workplace. Based on a report by the New York Occasions, a portrait of a grinning Lennu was shared on Twitter greater than 50,000 instances and favored nearly 150,000 instances after it was posted by a reporter.
Within the US, Lennu was featured within the Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon. In Finland, the canine additionally had a pastry named after him.
The Boston terrier was a scene-stealer — usually discovering the digicam to take a look at even when practised politicians like Niinisto had been staring elsewhere. Lennu died in Might 2021 resulting from a pituitary gland tumour.
The world is a dumpster fireplace, however a minimum of we’ve Lennu, the Finnish President’s canine. pic.twitter.com/My9YKorm8R
— Brianna 🐝BEES(?!)on (@briannabisson) February 23, 2017
Putin’s dog-plomacy
In Germany, Russia’s Vladimir Putin introduced his Labrador to fulfill former Chancellor Angela Merkel throughout a information convention in 2007.
Merkel, who reportedly has been afraid of canines since one attacked her in 1995, was photographed trying uncomfortable when Koni confirmed up on the assembly.
“I needed to do one thing good for her,” Putin mentioned, whereas he appeared to smile within the photographs. “After I came upon that she doesn’t like canines, in fact, I apologised.”
Based on stories, she later advised journalists, “I perceive why he has to do that – to show he’s a person … He’s afraid of his personal weak spot. Russia has nothing, no profitable politics or financial system. All they’ve is that this.”
However whereas Merkel won’t like canines, Putin loves them. A lot so, that different world leaders have usually gifted him canines. Amid tensions with Russia in 2017, Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov handed Putin an Alabai canine, a uncommon breed discovered largely in Central Asia. Bulgaria and Japan have every gifted Putin canines, too.
Koni, the canine that apparently spooked Merkel, was a present to Putin from Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
FDR, Fala and ‘faux information’
Lengthy earlier than Donald Trump, US presidents have been accusing their opponents of “faux information”.
In 1944, then US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s opponents claimed that he had left his Scottish terrier, Fala, behind after a go to to Alaska. They mentioned he needed to flip again to recuperate the canine, costing the exchequer a number of million {dollars}.
There isn’t a proof that this occurred, and Roosevelt claimed it didn’t. However he additionally used it to garner sympathy for himself – and for Fala – in a nationally broadcast speech.
“These Republican leaders haven’t been content material with assaults on me, or my spouse, or on my sons. No, not content material with that, they now embody my little canine, Fala,” he mentioned.
“Nicely, in fact, I don’t resent assaults, and my household doesn’t resent assaults – however Fala does resent them. You understand, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as quickly as he realized that the Republican fiction writers, in Congress and out, had concocted a narrative that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had despatched a destroyer again to search out him … his Scotch soul was livid. He has not been the identical canine since,” he added.
A statue of Fala beside FDR is featured within the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington.
A Chilly Conflict pet spy?
Through the Chilly Conflict, Soviet chief Nikita Khrushchev gifted US President John Kennedy a canine referred to as Pushinka, whose mom was one of many first canines to fly into area and return alive
When Pushinka (“fluffy” in Russian) arrived in Washington, many suspected that she was a spy and may very well be hiding listening units.
“After an entire bunch of assessments for bombs and germs and different listening units … [Pushinka] went on to fall in love with President Kennedy’s beloved terrier, Charlie,” Jennifer Pickens, a White Home historian mentioned in keeping with a report by NPR.
Pushinka gave beginning to 4 puppies affectionately referred to by Kennedy as pupniks.
The White Home obtained about 5,000 requests asking if they may have the puppies.
Countdown to #PresidentialDogs!!
We’re formally 7 days out from the opening of our subsequent exhibit.
We’re beginning our countdown with Charlie the Welsh Terrier and Pushinka, who belonged to the Kennedy’s.
Photograph courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum pic.twitter.com/uXdJ3aP9zz— AKC Museum of the Canine (@akcMOD) September 1, 2020