President Biden’s German Shepherd, Commander, is under scrutiny for biting several Secret Service agents, sending at least one to the hospital. Since any other dog and its owner would be in trouble, the incidents help make the case that anyone connected to this White House is above the laws and rules governing the rest of us.

According to Secret Service emails obtained by Judicial Watch, the White House is denying the reality that even a well-trained dog like the Ohio K9 officer — also a German Shepherd — that attacked a driver at a traffic stop earlier this month can maim or kill, ignoring orders to stop.

“There are Secret Service agents being injured on the job,” the president of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, told me, “and no one seems to care about it.” He also shared that Commander had slipped out a door in Delaware and bitten a security technician in the back.

“It’s an awful situation,” Mr. Fitton said, “and the White House spokeswoman was laughing about it yesterday. It wouldn’t be funny if she were on the wrong end of a dog attack. It’s traumatic and severe and potentially deadly,” imagining if the dog clamped its jaws, with pressure up to 300 pounds per square inch, on someone’s throat or hit a major artery.

During my career in veterinary medicine, I treated many aggressive dogs, using tools like the muzzle, rabies pole, sedatives, and reflexes honed at a sometimes painful and bloody price. Irresponsible owners, however, can’t be wrangled, dropping the leash rather than taking responsibility for the animal on the other end.

Careless people have a million euphemisms for bites including “nipping,” “teething,” “mouthing,” or “nibbles.” In one email, an attack by Commander is excused as “not a legit bite. The dog put his mouth on” an unnamed agent “and then released. No skin was broken. Looks like the dog was being playful…”

One agent, bitten twice, fought Commander off with a steel cart. Another wrote that the dog charged him and First Lady Jill Biden “couldn’t regain control.” When Mr. Biden let Commander off the leash, the dog lunged and bit yet another agent. 

Such an aggressive dog is a national security concern at the White House, where agents require freedom of movement. Recommendations like avoiding eye contact are absurd when the job is keeping your eyes peeled.

The Washington D.C. Code describes a “dangerous dog” as one that, unprovoked, “causes a serious injury,” “chases or menaces … in an aggressive manner, causing an injury,” or “demonstrated a propensity to attack without provocation,” which describes Commander and could lead to a dog being euthanized or taken away if it weren’t a Biden.

“In the eyes of the law,” the District’s department of health website states, “you are responsible for any damage done by your dog,” and the local “one-bite rule” means that after a single attack, its owner is expected to be aware of the danger and act to prevent them.

“Pete,” the Sun reported in 1907 of one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s more aggressive dogs, “had an idea stored in his canine brain that most of the city of Washington belonged to him and he had posted the town with ‘no trespassing’ signs written in dog language.”

Territorial like German Shepherds, Pete chased visitors and bit policemen, tore one cabinet secretary’s pants, chased another up a tree, and ripped the trousers off the French ambassador. After the dog targeted a State Department official, Roosevelt shipped him out, as Mr. Biden did with his previous dog, Major, who also attacked agents.

“It’s terrible,” Mr. Fitton said, “and symptomatic of the arrogance of the Biden family. They do whatever they want and the rules don’t apply. No other American family would be able to keep a dog that bit six people. It just wouldn’t happen.”

President Truman is often quoted as saying, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” The Truman Library told me the remark is a myth, but Truman’s documented motto holds for aggressive White House dogs: The buck — and the biting — stops with the president, who ought to be responsible and remind Commander who’s top dog.