Some people love dogs but others aren’t really fans of them. It appears that President Trump falls into the latter category and he has come under consistent pressure to adopt a furry companion since he took office. When quizzed on the matter this week, he told rallygoers it would feel “phony” to have a dog and that “while he wouldn’t mind having one, he wouldn’t have the time”. Trump is the first U.S. president in over a century without an official dog.

U.S. presidents have always loved dogs and down through the years, they have kept all sorts of pets, according to a list maintained by the Presidential Pet Museum. They ranged from George Washington’s many horses to the alligator Marquis de Lafayette gifted John Quincy Adams. Apparently, the gator lived in a White House bathroom, terrifying some of the guests. The following infographic provides a rough history of White House pets by a president since 1789.

It isn’t always possible to cite the exact number of animals. For example, more obscure presidents kept songbirds and it has become to difficult to gauge exactly how many there were. Another example is President Woodrow Wilson’s sheep that grazed on the White House lawn. It is known that the sheep existed (there are photos to prove it) but it remains unknown exactly how many animals there were.

source: statista