Pets for the
Presidents
Art & Antiques by Dr. Lori
By Dr. Lori Verderame
There is always an interest in the ways that our presidents relax and
enjoy family time. Eisenhower played golf and painted landscapes,
Reagan rode horses, and Obama played basketball. But, many of our
past Presidents also enjoyed down time with a first family pet.
Some of the most interesting
presidential pets at
the White House since
the middle of the 1900s
followed in the paw-steps
of President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt’s faithful
companion named
Fala, a black Scottish
terrier. Fala traveled with
Roosevelt on trips abroad and was often photographed
by the press. He did tricks and entertained the President,
diplomats, and others during the period before and during
World War II.
Fala resembled Miss Beazley, another Scottish Terrier that
arrived at the White House in January 2005 during George
W. Bush’s time in office. Miss Beazley was a birthday present
for First Lady Laura Bush. Like her daughter-in-law, First Lady
Barbara Bush also had a dog in the White House, a springer
spaniel named Millie. In 1992, Millie “penned” a New York
During the first decades of the 1900s, the White House was
full of pets. President William McKinley owned an exotic
Mexican yellow-headed parrot. President Teddy Roosevelt,
a Rough Rider and big game hunter who decorated the
State Dining Room with his taxidermy hunting trophies,
brought pets to the White House. The Roosevelts kept owls,
lizards, roosters, badgers, guinea pigs, snakes, raccoons,
hyenas, ponies, and a macaw named Eli Yale at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue.
William Taft brought the last cow, the most common US
Presidential pet at the time, to the White House. President
Wilson let sheep graze on the White House lawn along
with a tobacco-chewing ram named Old Ike. Not to be
outdone, President Calvin Coolidge maintained a mini-zoo
at the White House with many breeds of dog and various
canaries, geese, and mockingbirds. Exotic pets came to
the White House as gifts from foreign dignitaries such as a
wallaby, pigmy hippo, bear, and lion cubs. The Roosevelts,
the Coolidges, and the Kennedys had a great many –-
nearly 25 - pets.
28 www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com
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