Republican governor Kristi Noem is getting her big debut on the national stage, but probably not for reasons she wanted. The South Dakota politician is in hot water after writing in her upcoming book about killing one of her family’s hunting dogs. Noem is one of the politicians hoping to become Donald Trump’s running mate, but there are few things that people across the entire political spectrum hate more than a dog killer. We’ll see how that goes for her, but in the meantime, here’s what’s going on with the whole situation.
Who is Kristi Noem?
Noem is the governor of South Dakota, and is reportedly on the shortlist for Trump’s vice-presidential candidate. Born and raised in South Dakota, Noem grew up on a ranch and still refers to herself as a “farmer and a rancher.” If the name sounds familiar, it might be because last month, she garnered headlines after posting an infomercial-esque video about her trip to Texas to get veneers. The video was very odd and also a clear indication that she was getting ready for more time in the public eye — although I imagine she wasn’t expecting it to happen like this.
Why did she kill her dog?
The Guardian obtained Noem’s upcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward. In it, she details her time with Cricket, a hunting dog who was bad at her job. “Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” Noem wrote. The governor went on to describe her as having an “aggressive personality.”
While driving home from an unsuccessful pheasant hunt where Cricket was “out of her mind with excitement,” Noem stopped to talk to a family. Cricket escaped from the truck, making a beeline for the family’s chickens. According to The Guardian, Noem described Cricket “grabb[ing] one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.” When Noem got ahold of Cricket, she claims the dog bit her. Noem says she wrote the family a check for the chickens and helped them “dispose of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime.”
“I hated that dog,” Noem apparently wrote, claiming that Cricket was “untrainable” and “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with.” She decided that the solution was to “put her down.” She took Cricket to a gravel pit, where she describes how she proceeded to kill Cricket with a shotgun.
“It was not a pleasant job,” the governor wrote, “but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.”
Wait, did she kill another animal that same day?
Shockingly, yes. According to her book, Noem killed Cricket and then figured she should also get rid of the “nasty and mean” goat her family owned, who apparently wasn’t castrated and “loved to chase” her children. She “dragged him to a gravel pit” as well, but he jumped when she shot him, so she had to get another shell from her truck in order to shoot him again.
How did people respond to the news?
One thing that no one likes is someone who kills an animal, especially a dog. This story managed to bring people together across the aisle, with Democrats and Republicans all coming together to show much they love their dogs. The Biden-Harris campaign shared photos of the president and vice-president playing with dogs.
Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, shadily posted an endorsement for dog adoption.
What does Noem have to say about this?
On Friday, when The Guardian published its story, Noem responded by admitting to killing more animals. She posted a screenshot of the headline on X, writing, “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down three horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”
Once the story had turned her into both a joke and a villain, Noem released a longer statement. She did not apologize or condemn her own actions, but rather informed the public that what she did wasn’t actually illegal. So that should be fine, right?
The story has continued to plague Noem and her chances of becoming the VP candidate, so on Wednesday, the governor went on Fox News to blame the media for “putting the worst spin” on a story about her killing a dog.
“The truth of this story is that this was a working dog, it was not a puppy. It was a dog that was extremely dangerous,” she told Sean Hannity. Noem explained that the dog had come to her family because another family found it “way too aggressive.” The governor said that the story was included in the book as an example of a “tough, challenging decision” that she’s had to make in her life.
What are some other tough decisions she’s made? Noem cited her refusal to require South Dakotans to get COVID vaccines or wear masks as one of them. Between the dog and the immunocompromised, the staunchly pro-life Noem seems to have a shocking disregard for, well … life.
This post has been updated.
