United States presidential pets


Most United States presidents have kept pets while in office, or pets have been part of their families. Only James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, and Donald Trump did not have any presidential pets while in office.

History of White House pets

The first White House dog to receive regular newspaper coverage was Warren G. Harding's dog Laddie Boy.
Pets also featured in presidential elections. Herbert Hoover got a "Belgian Police Dog", King Tut, during his campaign and pictures of him with his new dog were sent all across the United States.
Theodore Roosevelt was known for having many pets in the White House. He had six children who owned pets including snakes, dogs, cats, a badger, birds, and guinea pigs.
In 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for his fourth term when rumors surfaced that his Scottish Terrier, Fala, had accidentally been left behind when visiting the Aleutian Islands. After allegedly sending back ships to rescue his dog, Roosevelt was ridiculed and accused of spending thousands of taxpayers' dollars to retrieve his dog. At a speech following this Roosevelt said, "You can criticize me, my wife and my family, but you can't criticize my little dog. He's Scottish and all these allegations about spending all this money have just made his little soul furious." What was later called the "Fala speech" reportedly helped secure reelection for Roosevelt.
Richard Nixon was accused of hiding a secret slush fund during his candidacy for vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. He gave the televised "Checkers speech" named after his cocker spaniel, denying he had a slush fund but admitting, "there is one thing that I did get as a gift that I'm not going to give back." The gift was a black-and-white cocker spaniel, Checkers, given to his daughters. Although there had been talk of Nixon being dropped from the ticket, following his speech he received an increase in support and Mamie Eisenhower reportedly recommended he stay because he was "such a warm person."
President Lyndon B. Johnson caused controversy when he was photographed lifting his beagles, named Him and Her, by their ears. Some did not understand the controversy; former president Harry S. Truman said, "What the hell are the critics complaining about; that's how you handle hounds." Him died after he was run over by the presidential limousine.
Bill Clinton moved into the White House with Socks, a tuxedo cat, who in 1991 was reported to have jumped into the arms of Chelsea Clinton after piano lessons while the Clintons were living in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was later joined in 1997 by Buddy, a Labrador Retriever, during Clinton's second term. The two pets reportedly did not get along, with Clinton later saying "I did better with the Palestinians and the Israelis than I've done with Socks and Buddy" while Hillary Clinton said Socks "despised" Buddy at first sight. The two were, however, the subject of a book, Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets written by then first lady Hillary Clinton and appeared as cartoons in the kids' section of the first White House website.
While George W. Bush was president, he had three dogs and a cat at the White House. Among the canines was Spot Fetcher, an English Springer Spaniel and the offspring of George H. W. Bush's dog, Millie. This made Spotty the first animal to live in the White House under two different administrations, having been born there in 1989 and died there in 2004.
Barack and Michelle Obama were without pets prior to the 2008 election, but promised their daughters they could get a dog when the family moved into the White House. They selected Bo, a Portuguese Water Dog, partly due to Malia Obama's allergies and the need for a hypoallergenic pet. The puppy was a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy and was later joined by Sunny, a female of the same breed. Bo was featured in the 2010 children's book Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, written by President Obama with illustrations by Loren Long.
Joe and Jill Biden moved into the White House with two German Shepherds, Champ and Major. Major was the first shelter dog in the White House, while Champ returned to Washington, having joined the Biden family during Joe Biden's tenure as vice-president. The Bidens announced the death of 13-year-old Champ on June 19, 2021. In December 2021, the Bidens announced the arrival of a pedigreed German Shepherd puppy named Commander, gifted to them by Joe Biden's brother. Officials later told the press that Major had been rehomed to a quieter environment following a series of biting incidents. Commander also had to be rehomed after at least 25 biting incidents. The Bidens had also promised they would get a cat, and they fulfilled that promise in January 2022 by adding a two-year-old gray tabby, Willow, to the family.

List of presidential pets

In addition to traditional pets, this list includes some animals normally considered livestock or working animals that have a close association with presidents or their families. Presidents have often been given exotic animals from foreign dignitaries; occasionally these are kept, but often they are promptly donated to a zoo.

George Washington

  • Sweetlips, Scentwell and Vulcan – American Foxhounds
  • Drunkard, Taster, Tipler, and Tipsy – Black and Tan Coonhounds
  • Royal Gift – Andalusian donkey, a gift from King Charles III of Spain
  • Nelson and Blueskin – horses that were Washington's wartime mounts
  • Snipe – parrot said to have been owned by First Lady Martha Washington
  • Cornwallis – greyhound named for General Cornwallis
  • Samson, Steady, Leonidas, Traveller, and Magnolia – stallions

    John Adams

  • Juno, Mark, and Satan – dogs
  • Cleopatra and Caesar – horses

    Thomas Jefferson

  • Dick – mockingbird; Dick was the favorite from among at least four mockingbirds the president had while in office
  • Bergère and Grizzle – shepherd dogs from France, possibly Briards
  • Two grizzly bear cubs, a male and female pair given by Captain Zebulon Pike. Jefferson deemed them "too dangerous & troublesome for me to keep" and gave them to Charles Willson Peale's Philadelphia Museum
  • Caractacus – horse named after Caratacus, a 1st-century British chieftain. The horse was the offspring of Jefferson's mare Allycroker and a Godolphin Arabian named Young Fearnought
  • Sheep – beginning in 1807, the president bred sheep from "four of the most remarkeable varieties pro bono publico." By spring 1808, nearly 40 sheep were grazing at the president's house. One notorious Shetland ram was said to have killed "a fine little boy."

    James Madison

  • Polly – a parrot that outlived both James and Dolley Madison
  • Sheep – grazed on the White House lawn

    James Monroe

  • Buddy - A spaniel belonged to Monroe's youngest daughter, Maria Hester Monroe
  • Sheepdogs were provided by Marquis de Lafayette as working dogs on Monroe's farm.

    John Quincy Adams

  • Silkworms whose silk First Lady Louisa Adams spun.
  • An alligator – Said to have belonged to Marquis de Lafayette and housed for two months in the East Room. Although this story has been widely circulated, the lack of evidence from contemporary accounts or official records suggests an apocryphal myth.

    Andrew Jackson

  • Poll – grey parrot who learned to swear. Anecdotally, it is said that she attended Jackson's funeral and had to be removed due to loud and persistent profanity.
  • Fighting cocks
  • Bolivia, Emily, Lady Nashville, Sam Patch, and Truxton – horses Sam Patch was named after the famous daredevil known as "The Yankee Leaper."

    Martin Van Buren

  • Two tiger cubs – It is said that Van Buren received them from Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman but Congress quickly forced him to donate the tigers to the zoo. This story, however, is likely untrue and conflated with a rumor of a similar story at the time, relating to a gift including two lions from the emperor of Morocco and the American Consulate in Tangier. Although the Sultan did send a ship with many exotic gifts, that became a point of contention within Congress, there is no contemporary reference to tiger cubs.

    William Henry Harrison

  • Sukey – Durham cow
  • Whisker – Goat

    John Tyler

  • Le Beau – Italian Greyhound
  • Johnny Ty – canary. Brought to the White House by Tyler's second wife, Julia Gardiner Tyler
  • The General – horse

    James K. Polk

  • ''None''

    Zachary Taylor

  • Old Whitey – horse Taylor's wartime mount
  • Apollo – Pony; formerly a "trick pony" from a circus, a present for Taylor's daughter Betty and resided in the White House stables with Old Whitey

    Millard Fillmore

  • Mason and Dixon – ponies; named after the famous surveyors

    Franklin Pierce

  • At least two miniature "teacup" Japanese Chin dogs, part of a gift exchange with Japan following the Perry Expedition
  • Two birds from Japan, which had just opened its trading posts to the United States.

    James Buchanan

  • Lara – Newfoundland
  • Punch – Toy terrier
  • Eagle
  • Two Thai elephants – Mary and Buddha; sent to President Buchanan by King Mongkut of Siam, but arrived when Abraham Lincoln was president who refused them as a gift. The elephants were then sent to the Philadelphia Zoo.

    Abraham Lincoln

  • Nanny and Nanko – goats
  • Jack – Turkey, intended as Christmas dinner, but Tad Lincoln intervened
  • Fido – dog, "assassinated" by a drunk with a knife, a few months after Lincoln's assassination; Lincoln's famous dog may have popularized the use of the name "Fido".
  • Jip – dog
  • Tabby and Dixie – cats. Lincoln was gifted Tabby and Dixie from his Secretary of State William Seward when it was decided that Lincoln's dog Fido would have to stay home in Illinois after his election. Lincoln once remarked that Dixie "is smarter than my whole cabinet."
  • Horse
  • Rabbit
  • Old Bob – horse
  • Pig – One lived on the White House grounds