Kristi Noem wants to demonstrate the willingness to make decisions. The Republican, who was considered a possible Trump deputy, now described why she shot her dog.
The Republican governor of the US state of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, is causing a stir with a book in which she describes how she shot and killed her dog named Cricket. The British “Guardian” reported on the relevant excerpt from the as yet unpublished work. In it, Noem explains that she actually wanted to train Cricket for pheasant hunting. The 14-month-old dog was too impetuous and scared the game away. Then, “like a trained assassin,” she tore up chickens on a family’s property in the neighborhood and snapped at Noem. She then shot the animal in a gravel pit.
With the anecdote in the book, which will be published in the US next month, Noem wants to underline her willingness to do “difficult, messy and ugly” things as a politician if necessary, according to the report. Immediately afterwards, she did a similar thing with an “evil and mean” goat that always chased after her children.
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There was horror on social networks: “Congratulations, South Dakota, you have elected a sociopath who hates dogs,” wrote a user on the X platform. There was also harsh criticism from political opponents.
“The governor of South Dakota claimed her GWP was a bad dog. That’s nonsense. The thing about pointers like this is, all you have to do is give them exercise and expose them to birds. That’s all, but you have to do it almost every day or they’ll go crazy,” Ryan Busse, the Democratic candidate for governor of Montana and a dog owner himself, wrote on Platform X.
The US author James Surowiecki, who writes for the US magazine “New Yorker”, among others, also made it clear: “If you read the story that Noem tells, this was not a well-considered decision to shoot a dangerous dog. She lost out of control, decided the dog was too much trouble and shot him.”
Noem defends “difficult decisions”
In this year’s presidential election campaign, Noem is seen as a contender for the role of former Republican President Donald Trump’s so-called running mate, i.e. as a possible running mate. The 52-year-old caused a stir with a TV interview after the end of the right to abortion in the USA. “Every single life is precious,” she replied when asked whether an underage rape victim had to have the child. “I don’t believe a tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy.”
After the Guardian article was published, Noem defended himself on Platform X, formerly Twitter. “We love animals, but on a farm difficult decisions like these have to be made again and again,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, a few weeks ago we also had to kill three horses that had been with our family for 25 years.”
In response, the Democratic Party leadership, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), wrote a statement in the name of the “Dogmocratic Party”. Their message is: “If you want elected politicians who don’t brag about how they brutally killed their pets as part of their book tour, listen to our owners: vote for Democrats.”
