After an eleventh publicly disclosed biting incident occurred within the fall, Commander was despatched away from the White House. He now lives with different relations.
A present from Biden’s brother and sister-in-law, Commander was the second household canine to be despatched away from the White House. The Bidens’ earlier German shepherd, Major, was given to a different home after a number of of his personal biting incidents.
The Secret Service, whose personnel are outfitted to coach and deal with the company’s service dogs, struggled to maintain its brokers secure from Commander on the White House in addition to on the Bidens’ houses in Delaware, Camp David and different places the place the biting episodes occurred, in line with 269 pages of emails and inside data obtained by way of a public document request.
In October 2022, an unnamed Secret Service technician who was bitten by Commander however didn’t require medical consideration wrote in an electronic mail that they had been “worried about the family pets behavior escalating and that … something worse was going to happen to others.”
Those fears had been seemingly widespread on the company.
“The recent dog bites have challenged us to adjust our operational tactics when Commander is present,” a particular agent in cost wrote in June. The supervisor really helpful that Secret Service personnel create house between themselves and the canine, “be creative to ensure our own personal safety,” and be cautious of the place the canine is as they work.
The particular agent in cost added, “The senior leaders of the detail and agency continue to address the issue at higher levels with staff and First Family — working to have a better solution soon.”
Sometimes the episodes occurred when the president and first woman Jill Biden had been round, however brokers additionally described different incidents through which staffers had been unable to maintain management of Commander. The biting episodes turned notorious among the many brokers, prompting emails over the summer season about monitoring the variety of biting instances and crafting a public response.
The first woman’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander, stated this week that the household took a number of measures to maintain Commander underneath management, however that these efforts didn’t work.
“The President and First Lady care deeply about the safety of those who work at the White House and those who protect them every day,” Alexander stated in a press release. “Despite additional dog training, leashing, working with veterinarians, and consulting with animal behaviorists, the White House environment simply proved too much for Commander.”
On one event in June, Commander ran towards, knocked down and bit a particular agent so deeply that the person required stitches and excursions of the East Wing of the White House had been stopped for about 20 minutes as a result of blood had spilled on the ground.
Agents additionally expressed issues that Commander was generally unleashed in areas the place they had been patrolling. In May, one agent warned others that the canine was “either let out or gets out of the house on his own, off leash” whereas on the Camp David presidential retreat.
“I just had a run in with him … I’m pretty confident if I (hadn’t) gotten startled causing my cave man instincts to kick in with a bicep flex and a yell, he would have tagged me,” the agent wrote, recommending that brokers alert one another in the event that they see the canine off-leash.
The Bidens have been “heartbroken over this,” a person near the primary household stated, talking on the situation of anonymity to debate personal conversations. “They’ve apologized to those who have been bitten, taken flowers to some. They feel awful.”
