Most of our politicians themselves are not obedient, kindly and loyal. Similarities between candidates and their faithful cat or dog are few – but as trolls now deter supportive spouses and photogenic children from saccharine election leaflet photos, pets are increasingly becoming familial proxies. When Nigel Farage does a TikTok about his dogs Pebble and Baxter, thousands comment approvingly. But finding a family photo of the Reform UK leader is nearly impossible. And that, says Farage and many like him, is entirely deliberate.
Political animals are not new. Caligula threatened to make his horse, Incitatus, a consul. Cardinal Wolsey’s cat is immortalised in a bronze statue in Ipswich. In the 20th century, cats assuaged Winston Churchill’s black dog, so much so that a ginger cat with white socks called Jock – now in its seventh incarnation – must remain at Chartwell in perpetuity. The British bulldog himself loved animals, with a lion and even an albino kangaroo among the beasts he donated to London Zoo.
From the establishment of the republic, animals bounded, leapt and sauntered around the White House. George Washington had hounds named Sweet Lips, Madam Moose and Taster. John Quincy Adams apparently hosted the Marquis de LaFayette’s alligator, with the reptile thrashing in the executive mansion’s bath in the story, which may be apocryphal. Teddy Roosevelt had more than 40 pets, including macaws, zebras, raccoons, roosters, pigs and rats. His son Quentin, aged five, once escorted Algonquin the pony up in the White House lift.
The Chinese invented panda diplomacy, with the People’s Republic first giving the animals to the Soviet Union. Richard Nixon famously received Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing in 1972. Less well-known is Nixon’s reciprocal gift to the Chinese: a pair of Musk oxen.
Not as welcomed, perhaps, was the Akhal-Teke stallion given to John Major by the President of Turkmenistan in 1993. A six-month negotiation, a bribe of Moscow customs officials with a truckload of melons, an attack by bandits and unfortunate handlers being injured by the toothache-afflicted animal all featured in the journey. At its conclusion, the Household Cavalry decided that, ultimately, this particular gift horse was not for them, sending it instead to live in a Carmarthenshire sanctuary.
A ginger cat with white socks called Jock – now in its seventh incarnation – must remain at Chartwell in perpetuity
It wasn’t the first time an animal had put a politician under pressure. Jeremy Thorpe had Rinka. In Sochi in 2006, Vladimir Putin brought his labrador, Koni, to a press conference, knowing Angela Merkel was terrified of dogs after being attacked by one in 1995. Tony Blair said the controversy over the departure of Humphrey the cat from Downing Street was the biggest crisis of his first year of office.
In contrast, Nixon’s ‘Checkers speech’, where he paid tribute to his spaniel, humanised him. Warren Harding’s dog, Laddie Boy, ‘wrote’ articles for newspapers and became famous across the USA. Fala, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s dog, was the subject of a hilarious speech lampooning Roosevelt’s opponents, with the dog today remaining the only Potus pet to be featured in a presidential memorial.
A Deltapoll survey for my book, Political Animals, suggests almost half of people in the UK know Larry, the Downing Street cat – a level of name recognition for which many backbenchers would kill. And woe betide those who mess with the political animals: Ian Murray MP called Larry ‘a little shit’ as Scotland secretary. In the recent cabinet reshuffle, Murray was out. Larry, in contrast, can laze around the cabinet table any time he chooses.
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