South Dakota Gov. Noem defends executing 14-month-old pet dog
ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES VIA TRIBUNE
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during a campaign in McDonough, Georgia, in 2021. Noem has written a book that reveals she shot and killed her dog after the dog had killed a neighbor’s chickens.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a potential GOP vice presidential candidate, is defending her actions after an excerpt from her upcoming book reveals she executed a dog on her family farm.
Noem writes that her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, got loose and killed a neighbor’s chickens — after which Noem lured the wirehair pointer to a gravel pit and shot it.
“I hated that dog,” reads an excerpt obtained by The Guardian. The book is slated to hit shelves May 7.
According to the 52-year-old Republican — who Donald Trump is considering making his running mate in November’s election — Cricket was aggressive and untrainable and the chicken-killing incident was the final straw.
Noem reportedly describes the “dangerous” dog as a “picture of pure joy” as she gleefully “grabbed one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.”
The governor also claims the dog snapped at her as she attempted to stop the bloody scene.
Noem reimbursed the chickens’ owners for their dead birds and helped clean up the mess. But at that moment, Noem writes, she decided Cricket had to die.
While she was at it, Noem reportedly opted to kill a “disgusting, musky, rancid” goat her family owned as well. She dragged the animal into the same gravel pit and shot him too — but the “nasty and mean” goat survived its first gunshot. Noem went back to her truck, reloaded, and shot him again.
The politician apparently tells that story in the book to illustrate that “difficult, messy and ugly” things sometimes have to be done in life and in politics, according to The Guardian.
Noem linked to The Guardian’s article on X, where she explained, “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm.”
According to her tweet, Noem’s family recently added three horses that had been with her family for 25 years to the body count.
Noem found herself cleaning up a different kind of mess last month when a nonprofit advocacy group sued the governor for making an “undisclosed advertisement” for a Texas dental practice that allegedly violated consumer protection laws.
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