President Biden’s canine Commander bit a member of the Secret Service on the White House on Monday night, the latest in a collection of episodes through which one of many Biden household’s pets has bitten folks for the reason that president took workplace in January 2021.
“Yesterday around 8 p.m., a Secret Service Uniformed Division police officer came in contact with a first family pet and was bitten,” Steven Kopek, a spokesman for the company, stated on Tuesday. “The officer was treated by medical personnel on complex.”
The officer is doing properly, in keeping with Mr. Kopek.
Commander, a 2-year-old German shepherd, has bitten a number of members of the Secret Service since arriving on the White House in 2021, together with biting one officer on the arm and thigh badly sufficient that the officer was despatched to the hospital.
One of Mr. Biden’s different dogs, Major, was despatched to dwell away from the White House quickly after the president took workplace due to what was described on the time as a “biting incident” with a White House workers member.
Neither the Secret Service nor the White House supplied any further particulars in regards to the incident on Monday. But aides to Jill Biden, the primary woman, have stated that the episodes are the results of the stress the dogs really feel from being on the White House.
“As we’ve noted before, the White House can be a stressful environment for family pets, and the first family continues to work on ways to help Commander handle the often unpredictable nature of the White House grounds,” stated Elizabeth Alexander, the communications director for Dr. Biden.
Ms. Alexander stated that the “president and first lady are incredibly grateful to the Secret Service and executive residence staff for all they do to keep them, their family and the country safe.”
Internal emails obtained by a conservative watchdog group and launched to the general public this summer time documented 10 cases of “aggressive behavior” by the president’s pets.
In a kind of episodes, an agent was left “shaken,” in keeping with the emails, when he felt the necessity to hoist up the chair he was sitting on to make use of as a defend when Commander started barking at him from the highest of a White House staircase.
Secret Service brokers will not be liable for the president’s pets, however they ceaselessly discover themselves close to the dogs as they patrol the White House grounds or carry out their function as protectors of the president and his household.
In July, after the final episode involving Commander, Anthony Guglielmi, the company’s chief of communications, stated that it was generally unavoidable for the brokers to be in shut quarters with the pets.
“While special agents and officers neither care for nor handle the first family’s pets, we continuously work with all applicable entities to minimize adverse impacts in an environment that includes pets,” he stated.
Officials have stated the White House has designated areas for Commander to run and train.