Biden’s dog bites another Secret Service officer

WASHINGTON – United States President Joe Biden’s dog Commander bit a member of the Secret Service at the White House on Monday evening, the latest in a series of episodes in which one of the Biden family’s pets has bitten people since the President took office in January 2021.

“Yesterday around 8pm, a Secret Service Uniformed Division police officer came in contact with a first family pet and was bitten,” Mr Steven Kopek, a spokesman for the agency, said on Tuesday.

“The officer was treated by medical personnel on (the) complex.”

The officer is doing well, according to Mr Kopek.

Commander, a two-year-old German shepherd, has

bitten several members of the Secret Service since arriving at the White House

in 2021, including biting one officer on the arm and thigh badly enough that the officer was taken to hospital.

One of Mr Biden’s other dogs, Major, was sent to live away from the White House soon after Mr Biden took office because of what was described at the time as a “biting incident” with a White House staff member.

Neither the Secret Service nor the White House provided any additional details about the Monday incident.

But aides to Dr Jill Biden, the First Lady, said the episodes are a result of stress the dogs feel from being at 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,” said Ms Elizabeth Alexander, the communications director for Dr Biden.

Ms Alexander said 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 e-mails obtained by a conservative watchdog group and released to the public this summer documented 10 instances of “aggressive behaviour” by Mr Biden’s pets.

In one of those episodes, an agent was left “shaken”, according to the e-mails, when he felt the need to hoist up the chair he was sitting on to use as a shield when Commander began barking at him from the top of a White House staircase.

Secret Service agents are not responsible for Mr Biden’s pets, but they frequently find themselves near the dogs as they patrol the White House grounds or perform their role as protectors of the President and his family.

In July, after the last episode involving Commander, Mr Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications, said that it was sometimes unavoidable for the agents to be in close 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 minimise adverse impacts in an environment that includes pets,” he said.

Officials have said the White House has designated areas for Commander to run and exercise. NYTIMES