Kristi Noem Justifies Shooting Puppy Due to Aggressive Behavior

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem defended on Sunday her decision to shoot and kill her puppy after the revelation made headlines last week when an excerpt of her new forthcoming book was published.

The Guardian reported on the incident, which was included in an excerpt of her book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward”.

“Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” the South Dakota governor wrote about the puppy, adding that the female puppy had an “aggressive personality.” Wirehair pointers typically take a full two years to fully mature to adulthood.

She included the vignette in her book, the report said, because she believes it shows that she is willing to solve “difficult, messy, and ugly” problems.

Noem says that she took the puppy on a hunting trip and that the puppy ruined the trip by going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life.”

She said that on the way home the puppy jumped out of her truck and killed a family’s chickens, adding that when she got control of the puppy the puppy “whipped around to bite me.”

“I hated that dog,” Noem wrote, saying that the puppy was “less than worthless … as a hunting dog” and was potentially “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with.”

Noem determined that she had to put the dog down and so she led it to a gravel ditch and shot it with a shotgun. She also decided to put down one of the family’s goats that was “nasty and mean” because it was never castrated.

The incident sparked widespread backlash online from the political Left and Right, as many accused the governor of being cruel.

Noem addressed the criticism in a post on Sunday, saying that she believes that she did the right thing.

“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back,” she wrote. “What I learned from my years of public service, especially leading South Dakota through COVID, is people are looking for leaders who are authentic, willing to learn from the past, and don’t shy away from tough challenges. My hope is anyone reading this book will have an understanding that I always work to make the best decisions I can for the people in my life.”

“The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down,” she continued. “Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.”

“Whether running the ranch or in politics, I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle. Even if it’s hard and painful. I followed the law and was being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor,” she concluded. “As I explained in the book, it wasn’t easy. But often the easy way isn’t the right way.”