The White House’s four-year pet-free zone will come to an end by welcoming two German Shepherds when Joe Biden is sworn into office – making history in the process.
The president-elect and wife Dr Jill Biden will revive a long-standing tradition when they move into 1600 Pennsylvannia Avenue by bringing their First Dogs, Major and Champ, with them.
Biden will be entering the White House as the first ever presidential candidate to receive 75 million votes – but Major will be making his own history as the first rescue dog to live in the famous residence.
Champ has been with the Bidens since Christmas 2008 after the family bought him from a breeder.
President Barack Obama had promised his daughters he would buy a puppy if he won the election that year, and Vice-President Biden made the same promise to wife Jill.
Obama welcomed black Portuguese water dogs Bo and Sunny, and the Bidens fell in love with puppy Champ.
Ten years later, Biden’s daughter Ashley saw Delaware Humane Association animal shelter’s plea on Facebook to re-home a litter of German Shepherd puppies.
Major and his siblings had been abandoned at the shelter and were ‘not doing well at all’ when rescuers took them in, said the center.
Biden contacted the shelter and took Major home as a foster owner, before falling in love with him and deciding to adopt.
The center wrote on Facebook: ‘Once we posted about them for your help, Joe Biden caught wind of them and reached out immediately. The rest is history.’
The White House has a long history of presidential pets, with an exhibition showcasing photographs of them on the wall in the East Wing.
In 2016, Donald Trump became the first president in over a century to not have a dog.
In a video included in an unofficial Biden campaign advert, Trump said with a grimace: ‘How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn?’
The video, created by Dog Lovers For Joe Biden, suggested that Trump could not be trusted because he did not own a dog. It then cuts to a photo of Biden with his Champ and says ‘Choose your humans wisely.’
George W. Bush had three dogs – two Scottish terriers called Barney and Miss Beazley, and an English Springer Spaniel called Spot.
Bill Clinton’s family lived with beloved chocolate Labrador Buddy.
Franklin D Roosevelt’s Scottish terrier Fala became so famous he had cartoons and a film made about him.
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