Kristi Noem killed dog – sentenced as Trump’s deputy

Cricket the dog did not behave during the pheasant hunt.

Then Kristi Noem shot it dead – and a smelly goat.

Now the political USA is asking whether she can become Trump’s partner.

Kristi Noem, 52, is the Republican governor of South Dakota and former congresswoman. She is singled out as one of the favorites to become Donald Trump’s candidate for the post of vice president.

In an autobiography, as British The Guardian this week published extracts fromshe tells the story of Cricket.

It was a 14-month-old bitch of the rough-haired Vorsteh breed. She had, according to Noem, an “aggressive personality” and needed to be trained to become a hunting dog.

One day Cricket had to accompany older dogs on a pheasant hunt. Kristi Noem hoped that would calm the bitch down. But the hunt was ruined. Noem writes that the dog “went crazy with excitement, chased all the birds and had the best time of his life”.

“Hated that dog”

On the way back, Kristi Noem stopped at some acquaintances. Then Cricket escaped from the car and started biting the family’s chickens to death. Then she tried to bite her mate.

“Then I realized that I needed to kill her,” writes Kristi Noem.

She likens the dog’s behavior to “a trained killer” and describes how she apologized to the chicken farmer and wrote a check.

“I hated that dog. She was impossible to train, dangerous to anyone she came in contact with and beyond useless as a hunting dog.”

Kristi Noem took Cricket to a gravel pit and shot her dead.

Then she did the same with one of her goats. She describes it as mean and smelly. In addition, it loved to strangle her children.

“Normal puppy-like behavior”

According to The Guardian, Kristi Noem justifies the detailed episodes about the dog and the goat by saying that they show her power of action both as a politician and as a person.

But neither politicians nor other people seem completely convinced.

– There is no rational or reasonable excuse for Noem to shoot a young dog for normal puppy-like behavior, says Wayne Pacelle, president of the organization Animal Wellness Action, to NPR.

Colleen O’Brien at Peta, another animal rights group, is equally harsh in her criticism.

– She turned this unruly puppy loose among chickens and then punished her by personally blasting her skull to pieces. Instead, she could have tried to train her or find a more responsible owner.

The Democrats’ top decision-making body, the DNC, has also spoken out about Kristi Noem, writes The Hill.

“Our message is straight and simple: If you want elected politicians who don’t brag about brutally killing their own pets as part of a book tour to promote themselves, then vote for the Democrats.”

At the same time, several Democratic governors have started a trend in social media where they posing with their animals.

Criticism from Maga profiles

Even within the Trump movement there is criticism of Noem, reports Newsweek.

“Wow. There is no going back after this. It’s so heartless. Did she kill a puppy? As a dog lover, this is just too much for me. She could have found a loving home for the dog,” writes Laura Loomer, a far-right political activist, on X.

The newspaper also mentions other MagainfocloseMaga”Make America Great Again”, Trump’s long-standing political slogan.-accounts with large followings that condemned Kristi Noem.

But she stands her ground. After The Guardian’s publication, she tweeted on Friday morning:

“We love animals, but difficult decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Unfortunately, we recently had to euthanize three horses that had been in the family for 25 years”.

Mocked on TV

At the annual White House press dinner on Saturday, an annual event with a light-hearted tone, Kristi Noem was one of the politicians mocked. In front of the eyes of, among others, Joe Biden, the comedian Matt Friend did an imitation of Donald Trump and said:

“I kill this dinner even harder than Kristi Noem kills her puppies.”

On Sunday, Kristi Noem met the criticism again:

“I can understand why some would be upset about the 20-year-old story of Cricket, one of many working dogs on our ranch. The book is filled with many candid stories from my life, good and bad, challenges, painful decisions and things I learned,” She writes on X.

She continued to defend the decision to shoot the dog dead.

“In fact, South Dakota law provides that dogs that attack and kill livestock can be euthanized. Since Cricket had shown aggressive behavior towards humans by biting them, I made my decision.”