South Dakota Governor Condemned for Shooting Her Family’s Dog and Goat
The politician has been widely criticized after comments in a new book revealed how she took a goat and 1-year-old dog to a gravel pit and shot them both dead.
A South Dakota governor has received widespread condemnation after her comments in an upcoming book revealed how she intentionally shot and killed her family’s dog and goat.
The violent anecdote is told in politician Kristi Noem’s new biographical book which is set to be released later this month. Noem is seen as a potential contender to be running mate to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
In excerpts seen by The Guardian, Noem writes about the family’s 14-month-old wirehaired pointer named Cricket. The female dog is described as having an “aggressive personality”, and is taken by Noem to learn how to hunt pheasants in an effort to calm her down.
However, the training hunt was abandoned after Cricket went “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life”.
Later in the story, Noem tries unsuccessfully to control Cricket’s behavior by using an electronic collar. After an incident where Cricket escapes Noem’s truck, attacks a local family’s chickens, and turns to also bite Noem, the author says “at that moment I realized I had to put her down”.
“I hated that dog”, Noem says in the book, before retelling how she led Cricket to a gravel pit and shot her dead.
But excited Cricket was not the only casualty of Noem’s gun. Noem also mentions her family’s goat, who isn’t given a name, but is described as “nasty and mean”.
Noem proceeds to describe how she went to find the goat and “dragged him to a gravel pit” and shot him like she had done to Cricket the dog. However, the startled goat jumped at the shooting and survived the wound. Noem then had to go back to her truck to load another bullet in the gun and finish the grisly job.
“Hey, where’s Cricket?”, Noem’s daughter asks when she arrives home from school later in the story.
Noem’s decision to include the story of Cricket, she says, is said to describe her willingness to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” that needs to be done.
Noem’s Comments Draw Widespread Condemnation
Dog experts, animal welfare groups, and politicians from both sides of the political spectrum have condemned Noem’s actions.
The German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America describes the breed as “high-energy”, and a delegate of the club explained to Associated Press that a 1-year-old dog like Cricket is nothing more than “a baby”, with the breed not maturing until around 2 years of age and then only becoming fully trained when 3- to 5-years old.
Several politicians, including President’s Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, posted pictures of themselves alongside their own dogs on the same day that the article on Noem’s comments went live.
“There is no redeeming takeaway from a story about the ending of these animals’ lives, including a juvenile dog who was the family pet”, said Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund. “These details from Governor Kristi Noem’s upcoming book demonstrate a disconnect with the 86 million American homes that have at least one beloved pet and value our relationship with them. There are so many effective and humane ways to deal with canine behavioral issues that don’t resort to such means.”
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