Kristi Noem killed her pet dog, "Cricket," after the animal misbehaved on a hunting trip, she says
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I honestly think the best take away from that story (outside of her clearly unethical response) is that she's an absolutely trash leader who can't even properly raise a dog - a state or the country are far beyond her skillset.
It's exactly the kind of ethics the GOP wants from their kingpins when they subvert democracy: the capacity to react murderously to disobedience.
I think you broke the code yes. I think it's moderately likely that "get your hands dirty" will become a phrase we hear again in the somewhat-near future as shit gets more and more real leading up to the election.
I'm not saying that at all as a good thing, just where the GOP seems to want things to be heading.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican seen as a potential running mate for Donald Trump, tells a story in her new book about shooting and killing her young dog and a goat
Noem, who became governor in 2019, likened murdering her canine to having the ability and willingness in politics to do anything “difficult, messy, and ugly.”
I remember when presidential candidate Mitt Romney sunk his political career by telling what he thought was a humorous tale of creative problem solving that involved strapping the family dog to the roof of an overloaded car. This is like that, but horrifyingly worse.
During the 650-mile (1,050 km) trip, Seamus got diarrhea. The Romneys were first alerted to the Irish Setter’s bowel issues when Tagg noticed brown liquid pouring down the back window, followed immediately by him and his younger brothers yelling in disgust. Romney stopped at a gas station to wash the dog, the carrier, and the car. With Seamus back in the carrier, the family continued on their way.
I never knew the rest of the story.
What an asshole.
That was before the GOP became the party of sociopathy. I'm sure loving dogs will be the next symptom of the Woke Mind Virus.
Before they outed themselves as the party of sociopathy.*
FTFY
The crate apparently had a "windshield". I'm a dog lover, but I'm prepared to believe that Romney's dog was OK with travelling like that. I'm not saying that every dog would be OK with it, but I trust him to know his own dog. I mean, my dog would watch fireworks shows with me. Most other dogs would probably hate doing that, but that doesn't mean that I was somehow abusing my dog by bringing him with me.
Her daughter Kennedy looked confused, according to Noem, asking: “Hey, where’s Cricket?”
Jesus tapdancing Christ
Honestly, killing animals like this is one of the first signs of serial killers, is it not?
You can definitely argue that a lot of preventable covid deaths in SD were a result of her terrible policy.
We know that she believes any being not immediately useful to her is unworthy of life. This is such a core part of her identity that she believes she deserves accolades for it. She didn't just kill her dog, she did it and then bragged about it because she thinks it makes her look strong.
"I murdered my dog because I'm willing to get my hands dirty to get the job done"
No. You're just a psychopath...
This isn’t the point but how did she miss a whole goat and dog at point blank range? I own zero guns but I grew up in the South and I’m pretty sure I could hit the wizard in Mario 3 with a shotgun if you let me set up the shot.
The story should be that she’s an insane sociopath. But also, she missed! And she said construction workers were nearby and a school bus was coming. That’s some irresponsible shit. Don’t kill a puppy anyway but definitely don’t if there’s workers and a school bus nearby.
The answer is by simply not giving a fuck (or actively hoping to) if you inflict unnecessary suffering on the poor animal.
She's very clearly an outright psychopath, so I'm guessing it was on purpose.
I'm not sure I understand the logic of her even telling this story. So like if she finds herself unable to "train" a disobedient state judiciary or something, is she saying that this is her plan B?
Right? “I failed to train my dog and it killed a chicken while we were hunting birds, so I had to murder it.”
Okay, sorry your dog killed a bird while you were trying to get it to kill a different type of bird? You either didn’t train it well enough or it made an innocent mistake… not a reason to kill it
She's as out of touch of being able to train her dog as she is to be a representative of the State. When we voted to legalize weed, she made a sheriff start a lawsuit to block it on a BS technicality. Used citizen tax dollars against the will of the people who pay them.
More directly, this boast is more of anger issues being attempted of changing the narritive to "go getter attitude." Don't know details of the book, but how this article cites it seems more they she lost her shit over a puppy (honestly being a puppy) killing a neighbor's chicken (not specified if dog was loose or chicken got out), and even that didn't satiate her anger, she went and killed a goat for doing goat things (fertile male who was territorial.)
Honestly, her willingness to be a piece of shit (for various things, feel free to read her wikipedia) is a garner for attention from the worst parts of the GOP to only advance herself, because that's all who she cares about.
It seems like a failure on multiple fronts. For the magabrained types, she was both unable to train a dog to hunt AND is apparently a bad shot and terrible at handling guns.
For the normal Americans, she just comes off like a psycho.
Kristi Noem is a fucking monster & the world will be a better place when she is a footnote in the wastepaper basket of political history.
Welp. There's no way anyone could ever convince me Republicans aren't evil now, having read all the stories of these monsters torturing or killing dogs. 😬
You hurt a dog, you're automatically discounted as a human-being in my eyes.
This but for all animals. A hunting trip implies she was there to kill animals anyway.
She probably thinks telling this story will be sure to clinch trump's VP slot for herself.
I don't think this story would alienate her from the MAGA base. Conservatives love the aesthetics of farm life/hunting, doing the dirty work, etc. We're talking about people who defended "grab her by the pussy".
So saying the quiet part out loud has now extended to bragging about being a psychopath.
It seems that nearly every day I see another thing that future historians will be able to cite as an example of the alarmingly self-destructive behavior in the days leading up to the collapse of the US.
Kristi Noem is a despicable cunt. I hope she stubs a minimum of one toe every day for the rest of her miserable life.
Of course it's a republican.
It's funny to see her try to walk it back. So far not working.
How is she trying to walk it back?
I’m guessing she’s “pro life”.
Isn't that felony animal abuse?
Sadly, if you don’t cause the animal undue pain (a clean shot almost certainly is not legally considered to cause undue pain, but noem didn’t do that…), you’re totally allowed to kill your pets at any time. I would definitely prefer that people who kill their pets (for reasons other than mercy/safety) are separated from the rest of society than people who shoplift, but alas.
TIL. Thanks....terrible to know, but thanks for clarifying.
What is, the opposite of John Wick, Alex?
USA! USA!
Cruelty is the point and "the" bible gives them dominion over the animals. This is very on-brand for the repug party.
Republicans are so Pro Life that I won't doubt she'll start her next campaign with the story of Murdering her Family Puppy!
Make Dog Murderers Great Again
On a hunting trip? I heard it killed chickens and bit the governor, how did all of this happen on a hunting trip?
Hunting wild chickens on the governor's hunting grounds, obv.
This is a common rural mentality. Animals are utilitarian and those who fail to be useful or prove to be a nuisance are a waste of resources. "useless eaters"
Unless you're vegan (and I'm not), you participate in this kind of cruelty, even if you happen to be a few degrees removed from it.
Having grown up and still have the majority of my family live in rural areas, you're correct in that there's a mentality that animals are tools, a means to an end. But I don't think many with that mentality will be forgiving of her for this.
With that mentality there is also a general understanding that these are "dumb animals" who can and will fuck up and especially hunting dogs need a lot of training. A dog who fails the training isn't usually put down, just either given some less strict job, kept as a pet or put up for adoption. Taking her at her word, it sounds like the dog had killed some chickens and had turned towards her and tried biting. But being the dog was only 14 months old, sounds like it had an excited temperament and hadn't learned just how much bigger than other animals it truly is. Hardly a reason to kill an animal, even if it was just raised as a tool.
14 months is still a puppy. What a piece of shit.
Do you want to be vegan?
and that the animal [dog] later attacked and killed a neighbor's chickens.
Killing the neighbour's pets is a little bit more than misbehaving. That's the sort of thing dogs get put down for.
Going on to kill the goat the same day shows that she's evil, possibly even psychopathic. And then she admits that she's not that good of a politician, as well as a bad shot.
From the Guardian article:
Then, on the way home after the hunt, as Noem stopped to talk to a local family, Cricket escaped Noem’s truck and attacked the family’s chickens
She had been using the dog to hunt pheasants earlier that day. You really can't be pissed at a 14-month old dog (still a puppy at that age) for not knowing the difference between pheasants and chickens.
All this does is demonstrate that she's a terrible pet owner and a shitty person.
You don't automatically Old Yeller your dog for killing a neighbor's livestock; you either change how you are raising the dog (e.g. no more unsupervised outside time) or you acknowledge that the dog is a poor fit for your lifestyle and surrender it to a shelter.
I lost two chickens to one of my dogs. Now she can be around them without any problems for two years now. Know what I did? I trained my fucking dog. She'll steal an egg though!
The full story is worse. It took her multiple shots to get it done. She should not have a shotgun. She should maybe have a .22 rifle and use it for learning to target shoot.
People who are actually responsible gun owners probably hate her the most. I own no guns because I respect them and live in a city. But I was taught how to use them. My relatives have hunting camps and “harvest” deer and they all know guns are not a joke. You learn to aim before you shoot. We had piles of sand behind targets and started with BB guns. You don’t miss a whole goat.
On the one hand, crazy missing and what a weird set of circumstances, on the other hand, most people have never and will never have to put down a dog for something besides old age and won't ever understand.
I'm fairly confident she is a giant piece of crap, but there's a large reader base that lived their entire life inside the burbs that wouldn't ever be onboard with putting an animal down yourself. People that have never watched the young friendly doggo run a cow to death or similar. It's sad and infrequent but it happens.
Edit:
Bunch of experts here thinking it was our cows he was running to death. Or that we could have afforded to replace them, or that Mr doggo nicely comes back when he's called and stops running animals in the middle of a field. It was unfortunate, dangerous, and a rifle problem.
Changed the wording to make it clear this was not a little puppy at the time.
I'm rural and had a dog ol'yellered once—he loved kids, tolerated women, and would do his very best to rip the throat out of any man. I understand that sometimes the dog can simply not be allowed to go on. But man, I can't wrap my head around expecting a shock collar to work as training, and then calling it a day after it attacks some chickens. A young dog with a prey drive might not be suited for working, but could easily be somebody's pet. It would have cost so little to give it a chance to have a good life.
Our son and his wife have a Malamute who, as near as anyone can tell, is a Poodle racist. He's totally OK around people, kids, and other dogs... UNLESS the other dog is a Poodle, he LOSES HIS SHIT.
We love you anyway, you racist fuck!
Somewhat similar situation here. We tried for more than 4 years with a dog that we got when she was 2 that had been surrendered back to a shelter. Incredibly strong reactive prey drive and crazy high anxiety, and we suspect trauma from her first home. We did everything we could to give her a safe, comfortable, and secure home. Fantastic with kids and most women, could become somewhat more comfortable with men working through a specific process. But if you invade her turf without prework, it wasn’t good. But it was clear she didn’t have a good quality of life and she was a significant risk.
Working with our vet to eventually put her to sleep was incredibly hard and I still feel like we failed her. We made sure her last days were good ones though, and she went out feeling love.
People that have never watched the new puppy run a cow to death or similar. It’s sad and infrequent but it happens.
So... Don't put the dog around your cows if it wants to play? Seems like a really fucking simple solution.
Did you consider rehomng that puppy to a home with no cows? How is your first instinct to a dog living in a situation its unsuited to, "pull out a shot gun and blast it. Twice". Putting the dog down should really be a last resort.
My dog once crawled below my neighbour's chicken pen and killed 2 chickens.
Do you know what we didn't do? Kill the dog.
What did we do? Just buy him 2 new chickens of his choosing.
We now have a happy cute dog, and my neighbour still has chickens. He has never again killed a chicken.
A few years later a wild animal entered the pen and killed all of his chickens, but that's another story.
wouldn't ever be onboard with putting an animal down yourself
It does indeed suck and you never forget every one of them. But I'd rather take the responsibility than put that on someone else.
