Posted on 04/27/2024 10:09:55 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I have been an admirer of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem ever since she first showed up on my radar after her election in 2019. She has established a solid record as a conservative with ambitious policy goals that have served her state very well and she's an excellent communicator. She's been well up on my list of potential Trump veepstakes picks because she brings a lot to the table. But all of that came crashing down for me yesterday evening when The Guardian published a review of her upcoming book, "No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward." It sounds as if most of the book is a fairly typical political analysis of the dangers of rampant progressivism and the need to restore traditional American values. But it also contains one highly disturbing episode from her life when she killed one of her own dogs, a German wirehaired pointer named Cricket who was only 14 months old. Her description of the incident is rather horrifying and I fear it speaks poorly of her character. (Warning: Potentially disturbing content ahead.)
In 2012, as the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney was pilloried for tying a dog, Seamus, to the roof of the family car for a cross-country trip.
But in 2024 Kristi Noem, a strong contender to be named running mate to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has managed to go one further – by admitting killing a dog of her own.
“Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” the South Dakota governor writes in a new book, adding that the dog, a female, had an “aggressive personality” and needed to be trained to be used for hunting pheasant.
What unfolds over the next few pages shows how that effort went very wrong indeed – and, remarkably, how Cricket was not the only domestic animal Noem chose to kill one day in hunting season.
Noem describes attempting to train Cricket to hunt pheasant and the dog's failure to adapt to typical hunting procedures. Rather than locating game and "pointing" (hence the breed name) at birds so the hunter can take them, Cricket would "go out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life”. It sounds as if Cricket wasn't well-suited to be a hunting dog, but was certainly very happy. Noem even described Cricket as "the picture of pure joy."
Despite all of that, she took the dog out to a gravel pit and shot her with a rifle. She later returned and did the same to a goat. She reports that the uncastrated goat was "nasty and mean." Having worked summer jobs on family farms growing up, I can assure you that uncastrated male goats kept for breeding are aggressive and territorial. It's just their nature.
In a way, I suppose I can understand why Noem would choose to share this story. She's trying to make the point that she is "willing to do anything, difficult, messy, and ugly if it simply needs to be done." That can be true at times in politics to be sure, but as a leader, character also counts for a lot. As I've written here before, my wife and I first met volunteering at an animal shelter. Dogs mean a lot to us and we've had many over the decades we've been together. If you have a dog that you're raising for hunting and it doesn't work out, you can find a new home for the dog, particularly when it is so young and "the picture of pure joy."
Even if you can't manage to find a new home yourself, you could take the dog to a shelter. If all else fails, you might feel you have no other choice, but you should euthanize the dog humanely. We've had to take too many of our dogs to be put to sleep but they were all suffering from extreme old age and/or painful, untreatable diseases. (We probably could have paid off our house five years earlier with all the money we've spent on veterinary bills.) If the Noem family was operating a farm, they obviously knew and had access to a veterinarian. It's a requirement for such an operation. You don't just drag the dog to a gravel pit and shoot it.
In the book, Noem writes, “I guess if I were a better politician I wouldn’t tell the story here.” The Guardian correctly describes that passage as possibly being "the greatest understatement of election year." I agree. I wish I hadn't learned this about her.
To be clear, this doesn't take away from Noem's commendable performance as the Governor of South Dakota. And if Donald Trump does wind up picking her to be his running mate, I won't hold it against him or fail to vote for him. (We vote for presidents, not vice presidents.) But if she were to move forward and run for national office on her own, I would be forced to find a third-party candidate to vote for. As I said above, character is also important in leaders. I could not, in good conscience, vote for Kristi Noem. That's how important this is to me.
“You would’ve thought she could’ve taken him to a shelter for adoption as a pet.”
In rural South Dakota? In the 80’s?
I live in farm county and urbanized people are still dumping animals “out in the country” because they don’t want to pay for euthanizing them or the shelters are full.
The proper quote is "The dog then “whipped around to bite me,” This was when she intervened after the dog killed the chickens.
If you believe that killing chickens and attempting to bite its owner is acceptable behavior from a dog, then there's no sense arguing with you anymore.
There's many folks here who accept the reality that owning such a dog is a recipe for disaster.
Yep. Sad.
All she needs to,say is “oh come on folks, its not like i barbequed the dog and ate it like a past president did, which i must point out that you didnt mind that one bit!”.
What I see on this thread time and time again are horrified snowflakes with their panties all in a wad over this “murder”. That she should have taken the “puppy” to the pound.
When confronted with the facts, they change their tune and claim no, they are only upset that Noem put this in her book. The dog should have been put down, she just shouldn’t have written about it.
She could have written about an abortion and kept more American’s support. Speaks volumes on human depravity.
I can imagine all the commentary on here if the dog was a guard dog pit bull. Everyone would be applauding her as a hero for doing what needed to be done. That dog, from the description of the events, was more dangerous than a well cared for pit.
Really? And pass your problems onto someone else? That would be irresponsible and just plain wrong.
“He doesn’t need to worry about a VP who will be looking to run in 2028 to replace him.”
WHAT? Are you NUTS?
OF COURSE this is about who will replace him in 2028.
The ONLY reason who to pick for VP.
Do you think Trump can turn this mess around in just 4 years?
Just look how FAST Biden undid all of Trump’s good work!
Trump is no fool. He DOES love this country and KNOWS his legacy will amount to nothing unless he picks someone to carry on in his place.
THIS election is the most important election in our history.
THIS VP pick is the most important pick in our history.
This dog story isn’t a good thing, but when it comes to saving our nation, it’s not up there in priorities. Maybe it would come out in a campaign and she is getting out ahead of it.
I spent my first years on a farm and when our St. Bernard attacked a neighbor he had to be put down.
They sent me into the bedroom, but being a kid, I sneaked out and watched as the farm owner {an old Italian LEGAL immigrant} fed the dog his last meal and put a round into his head, which is the way I've done it with all of the animals that I've had to put down.
If you've never done it, it sounds cruel, but it's no different than a shot from the vet {and hundreds of dollars cheaper}.
Rural folks get off on animal abuse ? Explains how farmers and ranchers are some of the most entitled -— out there. They’re constantly acting like their ranch is more important than the environment and wildlife constantly acting like public land is their private property. They love welfare also, as well as forcing the taxpayers to clean up the enormous damage of their trade to keep prices low. And unironically call themselves free market capitalists.
Why on earth would anyone put the puppy killing incident in a book is beyond me. Noem’s political career is over.
If you are so happy with killing an animal for the pleasure or EATING IT, and you are happy if people give animals to shelters that kill over 1/3 of all animals peopke gave them, and you are happy when you put your own animal down, paying a vet to do your responsibility, then YOU HAVE NO ROOM FOR COMPLAINTS WHEN A FARMER OR OWNER PUTS DOWN THEIR OWN ANIMAL WITH A CHEAP BULLET.
“ I had an expensive Chesapeake Bay Retriever”
Similar story. A coworker went over to his daughters house to let their Boxer out for a nature call. The minute the dog hit the unfenced yard, he spotted an elderly woman walking her chihuahua. The dog raced over and bit the little dog and the woman trying to stop the attack. My friend ran over and tried to get the Boxer off the dog and woman by kicking the dog as forcefully as he could. It had no effect. He had to pull his 1911 .45 and dispatch the dog.
Some people are clueless as to the possible actions of a dog. They can and do attack people. Sometimes they must be put down.
I actually agree with you. But the idiot governor didn’t have to write the story in the way she did starting with “I hate this dog”. She herself caused the drama.
A VP nominee has two jobs - attack dog and pull in a large state’s EV that the top of the ticket might struggle with.
Winning the EV of South Dakota (or Alaska for that matter) is not a reason to nominate a VP.
I actually don’t care about her but to laugh as her career falls away.
She should have remembered the third S.
We have killed strays.
You have to.
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