Over the weekend, we talked about South Dakota Governor Kirsti Noem and how she’s a dog killer. Noem has released a memoir/MAGA screed, and in the book, she reveals a truly repugnant story about shooting her 14-month-old puppy Cricket and leaving Cricket’s body in a gravel pit. On the same day that she shot and killed Cricket, she shot and killed a family goat and left the goat’s body in the same gravel pit.
Well, people were outraged. The book excerpts came out late last week, and Democrats, dog-lovers and animal-rights people have been registering their disgust online. Noem was far from popular before all of this dog-murder, but this a special kind of backlash designated for psychos who kill happy puppies just because they don’t value life. Well, Noem saw the backlash and she wrote this sh-t on Twitter:
I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back. The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned.
What I learned from my years of public service, especially leading South Dakota through COVID, is people are looking for leaders who are authentic, willing to learn from the past, and don’t shy away from tough challenges. My hope is anyone reading this book will have an understanding that I always work to make the best decisions I can for the people in my life.
The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.
Whether running the ranch or in politics, I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle. Even if it’s hard and painful. I followed the law and was being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor.
As I explained in the book, it wasn’t easy. But often the easy way isn’t the right way.
“Don’t shy away from tough challenges” – you killed an innocent dog which you had not bothered to properly train. You took an untrained dog out hunting and Cricket did what came naturally. Instead of taking precautions to ensure that your untrained PUPPY behaved in unfamiliar situations, you lost your temper and snuffed out an innocent animal’s life out of your own malignant need for cruelty and violence. “Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them” – a puppy nips and bites, especially an untrained puppy thrown into weird situations like “being taken out for a bird shoot with zero training.”
Also: none of this was a binary choice, either kill a puppy or keep an untrained dog around. She could have rehomed Cricket, she could have taken Cricket to a shelter, she could have chosen many different options other than “shoot a dog in cold blood and leave the body in a gravel pit.”
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.