On Pets Politics Of American Presidents

American pet culture has a relatively long history. Not only American people but also the presidents love to keep pets, which is different from China. Throughout the history of the United States, only three presidents do not keep pets at the White House among forty-four presidents from President George Washington to President Barack Obama. The status of pets in the heart of American people could be seen from the large number and the various type of pets. According to the APPA statistics, American people will spend too much money on their pets each year. For example, it estimated that $60.59 billion would be spent on the pets in the United States in 2015. Among pet species, dogs are kept in high proportion, especially in the White House. According to statistics, the total number of dogs kept by the presidents of the United States is as high as 1000. All these constitute the basic soil of the pet politics of the United States. Based on United States pet politics, this paper will demonstrate the political roles that are played by the White House pets by predominantly taking Bo Obama as an example and using primary source materials and a number of news reports as the arguments.Except introduction and conclusion part, this paper will be divided into three chapters. Chapter I explains Bo Obama’ propagandizing image. This shows that pet dogs will help their presidents in promoting their loving images, winning the presidential election and publicizing official activities. Chapter II demonstrates Bo Obama’ role as political weapons. This infers that pet dogs will help their presidents in solving political problems, attacking his political opponents and acting as political advisers. Chapter III explains Bo Obama’ image as the miniature of their presidents by dissecting its similar special powers, characters and popularities with their presidents.Through the analysis of these three chapters, the White House pets’ image as propagandist, political weapon and the miniature of their presidents are embodied. For the presidents of the United States, pet dogs are not only their close friends but also their political partners with special political symbols. The study of American pets in the field of American studies is scare. On the basis of the previous study, this paper will further complement the study of pet politics, which, I hope, could offer some useful enlightenments for future study of pet politics.