Does King Charles III Have Pets?

The late Queen Elizabeth was a well-known lover of animals. She rode horses throughout her life, and bred and raised corgis, according to CBS News. After her death at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Elizabeth's son, King Charles III, and the queen consort, Camilla, are set to take up residence at Buckingham Palace. In light of that development, many royal onlookers wonder if the Queen's interest in breeding and helping animals will continue for the royal family, and whether or not King Charles and Camilla might bring along any pets to their new home.

For her part, Queen Elizabeth had a number of dogs when she died, including two corgis and one dorgi, a dachshund-corgi crossbreed, as Newsweek reports. As much as she could, Queen Elizabeth, who died at the age of 96, cared for the dogs until the end, and she only gave up riding horses one year before she died, as People notes. As far as the queen's corgis and dorgi, they will now live with Elizabeth's son, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, from whom some were gifts given to the queen after the 2021 death of her husband, Prince Philip (via Reader's Digest).

As far as the new Queen Consort Camilla is concerned, a love for dogs seems likely to continue at Buckingham Palace. A few years before the queen died, King Charles' wife told BBC Radio 5 Live (via the Evening Standard) "The nice thing about dogs is you can sit them down, you could have a nice long conversation, you could be cross, you could be sad, and they just sit looking at you, wagging their tail." King Charles III also shares a love for canines with his wife and late mother.

As Reader's Digest explains, the new king of England, King Charles' favorite dog breed is the Jack Russell terrier dating back to his childhood, but he also loves other dog breeds. In the 1980s, for example, Charles also owned a yellow Labrador named Harvey. Two of Charles' most beloved pets were both Jack Russells though: One named Tigga, who died at the age of 18, and the other Pooh, who disappeared on the grounds of Balmoral Castle in Scotland in the 1990s.

King Charles III and the Queen Consort, Camilla will be joined at Buckingham Palace by two dogs, Beth and Bluebell, rescued from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, based on TimeOut reporting. Since the historic Buckingham Palace was undergoing renovations when the queen died, the two dogs will remain awhile longer at the new king and Camilla's former residence, Clarence House, according to the Evening Standard.

Charles and Camilla give their pets free run of the house, everywhere except the bed, per TimeOut. Since Queen Elizabeth took such good care of her corgis at the palace with a room of their own, Beth and Bluebell are expected to live like royalty once they arrive. The tradition of royal pets in Buckingham Palace dates to the time of Elizabeth's great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who had a King Charles Spaniel named Dash, according to Dogoday.