Over the weekend, we talked about South Dakota Governor Kirsti Noem and how she’s a dog killer. Noem has released a memoir/MAGA screed, and in the book, she reveals a truly repugnant story about shooting her 14-month-old puppy Cricket and leaving Cricket’s body in a gravel pit. On the same day that she shot and killed Cricket, she shot and killed a family goat and left the goat’s body in the same gravel pit.
Well, people were outraged. The book excerpts came out late last week, and Democrats, dog-lovers and animal-rights people have been registering their disgust online. Noem was far from popular before all of this dog-murder, but this a special kind of backlash designated for psychos who kill happy puppies just because they don’t value life. Well, Noem saw the backlash and she wrote this sh-t on Twitter:
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. The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned.
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. 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.
As I explained in the book, it wasn’t easy. But often the easy way isn’t the right way.
“Don’t shy away from tough challenges” – you killed an innocent dog which you had not bothered to properly train. You took an untrained dog out hunting and Cricket did what came naturally. Instead of taking precautions to ensure that your untrained PUPPY behaved in unfamiliar situations, you lost your temper and snuffed out an innocent animal’s life out of your own malignant need for cruelty and violence. “Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them” – a puppy nips and bites, especially an untrained puppy thrown into weird situations like “being taken out for a bird shoot with zero training.”
Also: none of this was a binary choice, either kill a puppy or keep an untrained dog around. She could have rehomed Cricket, she could have taken Cricket to a shelter, she could have chosen many different options other than “shoot a dog in cold blood and leave the body in a gravel pit.”
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Kristi Noem, Governor of South Dakota appears before a House Committee on Natural Resources hearing on H.R. 3397, to require the Director of the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw a rule of the Bureau of Land Management relating to conservation and landscape health, in the Longworth House Office Building. Featuring: Kristi Noem Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 15 Jun 2023 Credit: Rod Lamkey/CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- Kristi Noem, Governor of South Dakota appears before a House Committee on Natural Resources hearing on H.R. 3397, to require the Director of the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw a rule of the Bureau of Land Management relating to conservation and landscape health, in the Longworth House Office Building. Featuring: Kristi Noem Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 15 Jun 2023 Credit: Rod Lamkey/CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- Governor Kristi Noem (Republican of South Dakota) makes remarks at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Featuring: Kristi Noem Where: Oxon Hill, Maryland, United States When: 23 Feb 2024 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
What about torturing that poor goat for being a goat.
I totally agree. All male goats are stinky and territorial. She’s not a very competent rancher.
And then bragging about it in a book and on twitter!
Hopefully her political career is also done for.
Apparently said goat, a male, hadn’t been neutered so of course it was aggressive. Maybe if they’d done that it would have settled down and been a good farm pet. This woman is off her unholy rocker if she thinks she’s entitled to kill a couple of innocent animals who hadn’t been properly trained and/or neutered.
They were probably breeding goats. Irresponsibly, no doubt.
Let’s not forget all the people who died from COVID in her state after she refused masks.
I hate this lady.
Yes! I remember reading about all the crap happening in SD during the pandemic due to their idiot governor. And now I know, this is the governor. People, and animals, have died because of her. Go ahead, trump, make her your running mate. This should ensure that you’ll never see the inside of the White House again.
I feel like she recently watched GOT and thought “I’m like Ned Stark! I will let people know I’m a leader by sharing that I execute animals as an allegory of me standing by the horrific choices I make! BRILLIANT.”
Including her own grandmother if I recall correctly!
MAGA agenda is cruelty as strength. The values system of these people are messed up, militant and prone to violence ( look at their gun worship)
I fear for this country! I fear that violence has been too normalized , and this so-called leader, Noem, is a soldier for that chaos. Psychopaths kill animals for no reason. This woman is currently banned from indigenous reservations across her state too! She is deranged for thinking this was something Americans want to hear. We love our dogs (and cats). Americans love their pets. This woman is a monster, this woman is MAGA
The comments she made which got her banned from those reservations, particularly her accusations of child neglect, were breathtakingly ignorant and racist. Exactly the same shit that was being said by the more “benevolent” white supremacists of the 19th century, eventually leading to the abuse and cultural genocide through NA residential schools. Considering that she was being touted as a VP candidate, it’s really disappointing that they did not receive more national coverage.
The MAGA idiots are so craven but I have a small bit of hope this will be something she cannot overcome and she will slink back to her corner of ignominy. Her five minutes are almost up anyway because them MAGA men only want to see/vote for hot bimbo women and aging is not going to make her more popular (not including the ones that won’t ever vote for a women – makes them uppity you know).
Nope, they’re rallying around her. Because, let’s be honest here, they were pushing for trump to use deadly force against BLM protestors. This is not happening in a vacuum.
Just heard a clip from some MAGA fool on Pod Save America where the guy said, ‘birth control makes women bitter & then they become democrats’. That was his ‘logic’. This is what we’re up against. This Kristi Noem person is even loonier than Sarah Palin, and that’s saying something. This is what the MAGA men think makes a good ticket–get the female vote! Any woman will do! She hunts moose (Palin)? Great! Kills her puppy & the old goat, too? Perfect! Bonus points for using a gun! Dumb as a box of rocks? Doesn’t matter, she’s female!
LOL 🎯
She’s a terrible person.
She also apparently has no one smart enough around her saying that this is not going over like she think it is.
And even if it is for an audience of one… she’s becoming a dog-killing liability. There are a lot of people on both sides that like dogs more than people.
Credible sources are reporting that the “audience of one” is very “disappointed” she published that. Not that she DID it, but that she told on herself and she is now off the VP list. Even that moron knows she’s radioactive now. No Way Back, indeed!
She is sadly right. She did have that right. I also have the right to HATE her sad MAGA ass. I guess her state has no Animal Cruelty Laws. She has confessed to it.
Not true. Read below about Dustin Kittle Twitter.
Sure, whatever. You also killed your political career.
It just reminds me of the line from Reynolds Pamphlet in Hamilton – “Have you read this?
You ever see somebody ruin their own life?”
Like…..she clearly doesnt remember “Dogs Against Romney” from years ago. People – yes, even MAGA republicans – love their dogs, and a lot of people love their dogs more than they love certain politicians.
The irony of this is that in today’s age, an affair is less likely to torpedo a political career than during Hamilton’s, while killing a dog back then would have been non-news.
These dog breed is supposed to be easily trained. If she had put in much effort at all, she should have had good results. She did take the “easy” way out. How is anyone stupid enough to believe she puts in the work on anything if she can’t train an easily trained dog? And, for her information, aggressive behavior is an unprovoked attack.
Exactly. It was the easy way out! If she gets to the point where she debates Kamala, I hope K’s team thinks of this argument.
OMG, Kristi vs. Kamala! That’s just too lopsided to contemplate! After watching that video the other day, of the Kristi vs. her male opponent for something? Dude was obviously far more accomplished than her. Kamala could wipe the floor with Miss Participation Medal.
A rural/rancher guy on TikTok said that there was another option: euthanasia.
Apparently vets are all over the place in rural places where animals outnumber people by a wide margin, and vets offer to come over and euthanize for just the cost of the anesthesia and heart-stopping drug ($40 total), no vet fees or other costs, to discourage cruelty to animals.
So there was an EASIER way out, that’s widely known and encouraged, but she chose this
As always, the cruelty is the point for these people.
But, surely a vet. would not euthanize a puppy for being… a puppy? Of course money-worshiping and MAGA type Veterinarians sadly exist in this our ‘brave new world’.
A family would have adored that puppy if the dreadful owner brought the dog to a shelter or into foster care.
But that would be an admission that the dog was trainable and that she was not a great dog owner.
There was a great column by Amanda Marcotte about how Noem is in trouble with the Right because you aren’t supposed to let outsiders see what a bloodthirsty ghoul you are. Keep it in the family
It backfired on her because she genuinely didn’t think she did anything wrong. Seeing the backlash she’s now receiving I’m sure she regrets telling this awful story. But again, she thought this story made her brave and relatable; the tough, no-nonsense ranch gal. She truly did not anticipate the dog-murderer angle being a thing.
I’m glad they’re too stupid to keep quiet. I want to know who these deranged, soulless, cretins are.
There is a universe of difference between being tough/no nonsense and being a brutal psychopath.
She told the story because there were witnesses to what she did and the story had been circulating around the legislature. She told it in her terms with the best possible spin to neutralize it and everyone immediately saw how horrific it was.
Reminds me of the Community show quote, “I can excuse the racism but I draw the line at animal cruelty.
You can excuse the racism?”
All that Botox has gone to her brain. It was bad enough when she wrote about it the first time. Now she’s doubling down. Who does she think is going to be persuaded that she is not a psychopath? She would make the perfect running mate for Trump. He can order living beings killed and she would be up to the task. Trump’s willing executioner.
The photoshop on that cover and the coy way she’s holding her gigantic hair extensions. Gross.
Crazy photoshop on that book cover.
Well, she obviously has no problem shooting her own face. She is so ugly inside and out.
I have no idea about the US, but in my home country cruelty to animals is a punishable crime, and killing them in cold blood can not only result in a fine but in a prison term, while any other animals present in that household/farm would be confiscated and that person deemed unfit to keep animals in the future.
I’m sure the Child Protective Services would look into a case like that as well.
Yes, it is punishable and Michael Vick, a quarterback for an NFL team, went to prison for fighting pitbulls. But he was a black man. If you look at Noem’s social media, it’s chock full of pictures of her with dead trophy animals, as well as other references to dogs of hers that have suddenly died. She is f***ing crazy and you can see it in her eyes. She belongs in prison.
Yes. There is no humanity in her eyes. She actually looks like she’s possessed. Or a borg.
At this point, Michael Vick has a better chance of being Trump’s VP pick than Noem. Poor Cricket should have disguised himself as a fetus.
She’s *still* proud of herself. Disgusting.
What a psychopath.
She’s horrible. There will be no going back. The irony of the title of her book.
I was actually even more struck by her subtitle: “The Truth On What’s Wrong With Politics…”
Politicians who celebrate psychopathy are, indeed, one of the quite major things “wrong with politics”. Noem is very helpfully providing details “on what’s wrong” going into this next presidential election run.
I guess she did have the right. She did nothing illegal, to my knowledge. But what Republicans so frequently fail to understand is that how people choose to exercise their rights speaks volumes about them, and that actions have consequences. Turns out that a lot of people (quite rightly) see dogs as morally superior to humans, and take a dim view of lazy bimbos who get off on executing innocent animals. Now she gets to live and die with the ignominy. Good.
And if anyone wants a good example of just how unnecessary it was to execute this poor puppy, it’s worth noting that all but 3 of the horrifically abused, trained-to-kill dogs that were rescued from Michael Vick were rehabilitated (and only 1 was euthanized for behavioral reasons). Many even went to families with young children. Cricket was just being a frisky, innocent, untrained puppy. There were loving, rational options for her.
Search for Dustin Kittle on Twitter to see his analysis of why it wasn’t actually legal. The TL;DR version is that it’s not legal if it’s in cold blood, yet Noem drove her dog back to her own property to execute it later. The law is meant to allow farmers to protect their own stock when attacked by an animal that isn’t theirs. The legal killing covers the moment the animal is actively attacking. Moreover, it was her own dog, but the state law specifies that legal killing is for others’ animals (e.g., you are responsible for your own animals, so it’s your fault if they misbehave).
Oh damn, then this is one of those occasions when I’m very happy to be wrong. Here’s to hoping that there is some justice for poor little Cricket (and the goat, and the horses that she admitted to killing more recently), and that the law will also allow that any animals she currently owns can be protected from her bloodlust.
Shawna I read that yesterday, it is a great thread. It would be wonderful if her own words actually sent her to prison. The question is how much the GOP is going to circle wagons around a puppy killer: will they hang her out to dry or not. I mean, even Jeanne Pirro “Judge Box Wine” on FOX is against her.
Justice for Cricket!
And since I’ve gone down the rabbit hole, others are saying it’s unlikely that 3 horses would need a mercy killing at the same time.
She’s killing her horses, too????
I actually just came across that thread this morning, it is really informative and he appears to be a non-partisan person so it isn’t that he is posting with a political bias.
He also did a great job of describing why there was no reason for her to k*ll her goat, and that it was just displaying normal, uncastrated goat behaviour. The smell of the goat and behaviour of the goat around the children was 100% under her controlled as the adult in this situation.
She sounds like an ignorant and uneducated pet owner, dog trainer, and livestock handler. Rather than deal with her lack of knowledge and lack of effort put into her animals, she just took their lives. I’m so disgusted by her.
@Shawna – The only reason I can think of for killing all 3 horses at once, is that all of them were already in poor health due to neglect or abuse. Which would not surprise me in the least, coming from this vile bitch.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/kristi-noem-doubles-down-on-decision-to-kill-family-dog-adds-that-she-killed-3-horses-a-few-weeks-ago
Look at the bright side: she has shown everyone who she is, so there’s no need to speculate as to her craven behaviour or attitudes. It’s a *good* thing that she has exposed herself; now we all know exactly the depths to which she will go to assert her “rights”.
Let’s encourage all politicians to write books extolling their twisted virtues. Knowledge is power!
Yep!
“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.
As I explained in the book, it wasn’t easy. But often the easy way isn’t the right way.”.
Puke. A responsible parent, dog owner and neighbor (ignoring her Oxford comma) wouldn’t just toss the animals in a gravel pit.imo They would at least bury them.imo
Did she go to the same plastic surgeon/photoshop person as Khloe Kardashian for her book cover?
On Sunday the hashtag #puppykiller was trending on X. An image that I can’t get off my mind is that Noem described Cricket as “having the time of her life” on that hunt. And that natural joy in a frisky puppy enraged Noem and she wrote that she hated that dog. I don’t know if there is a tern for a politician who dynamites their own career, but I think that from now on it should be known as pulling a Noem.
Evil woman.
Even simpler: Noem is now a verb, as in “He just noemed himself with the DUI bust.” It can replace “toast,” “He’s noemed now!”
Well, this is why the world is what it is today- run by psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists.
The wicked flourish like the green bay tree.
She’s psychotic. How horrible to harm an email, or anyone, and then brag about it. WOW.
I remember listening to the Sopranos podcast and Michael Imperioli said the show got more backlash from the episode where Christopher accidentally kills his dog than any episode where a human was killed.
I also remember watching a behind the scenes show (can’t remember for which show) and they were talking about the script and for one episode a scriptwriter suggested they kill the dog and everyone said you never kill the dog, the audience don’t like it when you kill the dog.
It’s not a hard concept.
I wonder if anyone could contact those construction workers and ask them about her emotional state at the time. But they’ve probably already been threatened or NDA’d.
I remember listening to the Sopranos podcast and Michael Imperioli said the show got more backlash from the episode where Christopher accidentally kills his dog than any episode where a human was killed.
I was watching a behind the scenes show (can’t remember for which show) and they were talking about the script and for one episode a scriptwriter suggested they kill the dog and everyone said you never kill the dog, the audience don’t like it when you kill the dog.
It’s not a hard concept.
The only shows I’ve ever continued to watch after a dog was killed was John Wick. Sic HIM on Kristi Puppy Killer Noem!
Even on a sitcom, you don’t kill the dog! On Everybody Loves Raymond, Robert’s dog just disappeared one day. I read an interview with Phil Rosenthal (the producer) and he said that was a deliberate choice. They didn’t forget about him they just knew that any episode dealing with his death would not go over well.
I’m sure she beats the dogs she doesn’t kill. Someone should call her county’s animal services dept for a welfare check.
This thought sickens me.
Wouldn’t surprise me if she had beat Cricket in the lead up to his demise. I have no doubt that poor pup had an extremely violent end. All for the “crime” of being a puppy.😢
What a worthless puppykilling bitch. Stephen Colbert went to town on her last night on his show. May she never know another moment’s peace.
Absolutely insane that she considers herself a responsible dog owner. Literally any other option is being a responsible dog owner, shooting your dog is a sign that you are a psychopath.
This woman should not be allowed to own any animals. Ever. But of course she will.
So she was enraged seeing an untrained puppy frolic around chasing wild birds, and decided to kill it.
Then she took the “untrainable” puppy to a farm, OFF LEASH, where it killed a chicken.
Then she killed it.
But that wasn’t enough for this bloodthirsty ghoul—killing the puppy for being a puppy made her see she could also kill an intact male goat for smelling like an intact male goat.
Psychopathic.
And three elderly horses recently. She said.
Whatever. I hate her and all MAGA scum. Nothing she can say can change my opinion that these are the lowest of the low. No conscience, no heart. They are the scourge of the nation and the world.
She is vile, and she should burn for eternity.
She also talked about killing 3 old horses. That is ridiculous. I have 3 beloved retired horses that are out to pasture enjoying old age. When they get too old and in pain, we have to put them down. But while they have quality of life they are well taken care of. There would never be a reason to put down 3 at once unless it was for her convenience. She uses kill as first choice. She is disgusting.
This! We have two elderly donkeys who still love to get carrots as a treat, and seem very content. If we see signs of pain we will get our Vet to check them, but right now they are dozing in the sun and they love when I brush them.
OMG that’s horrific! For someone who is allegedly pro-life, she sure does seem to prioritize her convenience over the lives of a lot of living, breathing beings.
The only thing I like about this story is that, since Noem was not a household name among Americans who don’t follow politics, her name will forever be associated with “puppy killer,” as surely as Michael Vick is best remembered for dog abuse.
Canadian here, and know way more about American politics than I’d like to in this age of Trump and MAGA but even with that I’d never heard of her until I saw Colbert last night. Anyway where I think she made her biggest tactical error was in being female and bragging about killing animals. A man could have spun this to be a positive, at least with the MAGA crowd. That would never happen for a woman. Batshit crazy is aces with them, but bragging about killing puppies? Nope.
I find this whole situation so upsetting. There are zero excuses for what she has done to her animals. Animal welfare in her state should remove ALL of her animals and bar her from ever owning any animal again. My god, I HATE her and all GOP / MAGA.
Couldn’t agree with you more.
I hope the people of South Dakota stop doing business with her ranch. She’s probably running around in a rage right now, looking for an innocent goat to slaughter. SMH.
Great book title… prophetic.
I don’t get this. Is she saying it hadn’t been threatening livestock but had shown signs of aggression towards people, so out came the gun? Why not get it properly trained or give it away to someone who would care for it properly. Essentially she’s saying she failed and it was easier to kill her failure than try again. I actually understand the need to kill persistent dog threats to livestock, from a farmer’s perspective. But this is her trying to look all sexy no nonsense no sentimentality. Odd. Having said this, I’ve just got back from walking our dogs and there was a dog walker out there with about eight dogs, two very reactive. He was out of control with it. Why are people getting dogs they can’t care for properly. It’s no good expecting dogs to walk well in packs of different personalities.
that is way too many dogs for one person to manage. especially if they’re not all very well socialized.
I’m happy to see that her polling numbers have taken a plunge. poor Cricket, poor goatie, poor horses. I hope she faces some legal consequences for all of this. and that she loses her next election.
The dog story is ghastly, but I have so many other questions about this woman. There was the scandal involving her daughter getting a real estate appraiser license, and did anyone see the UTTERLY BIZARRE ads she did for a cosmetic dentist in Texas? She’s the governor of an entirely different state! How hard up for cash IS she??? Isn’t anyone in South Dakota worried about her bribery potential?
She didn’t just get her daughter the license, she lowered the standard so her daughter could get licensed. Bootstraps and DEI hating indeed. She also had a year ++ affair with Corey Lendiwski, trumps guy. She’s nasty.
Truly one of the most disgusting people I’ve ever seen. Anything go do with animal abuse is unforgivable. Someone should do that to her. Having an animal is a privilege not a right
I have pointers. Pointers are bred to hunt large ground birds. That is birds that nest and live on the ground, pheasants, turkeys, and CHICKENS.
So she had a young dog whose strongest instinct was to hunt chickens, full of adrenaline and excitement, let him loose in the middle of temptation, and got upset because did his JOB!!! She killed him for something that was her fault, could have been fixed, and for what he was born to do. She is a monster.
Since pets are considered as property I guess you have the “right” but where is your empathy, compassion and ethics?? Horrid behavior, admission and reasoning. Disgusted.
STUPID IGNORANT MAGA C**T. Humane Society should investigate the entire ranch for signs of abuse.
most states have a legal requirement to quarantine a dog for 10 days after a bite is reported (even if the plan is to euthanize the animal) so I call bullshit on her claim that Cricket was a dangerous dog with a history of biting people. The only reference to that dog biting was Noem saying that the dog was trying to bit her after she grabbed Cricket by the neck to drag her away from the chickens. That’s what she describes as aggressive and dangerous. She’s a POS
I love all animals, usually more than most people. This woman disgusts me so much, I hope Trump picks her as a running mate and America decides that this is too much for them. I am a vegan & a pacifist but I would have no problem putting her in a gravel pit and killing her to save a puppy or a goat. I cannot bear to read anymore about her but if she has children, I pity them AND the world she sends them out to.
That woman is a full on psychopath.
Straight up sociopath. I have no words.
Sarah Palin 2.0. Sarah Palin on steroids. Sarah Palin in maga times.
The dog was attacking livestock and people. That part always seems to get lost in the retelling of the story. What is the difference between a veterinarian putting down a violent dog and bullet through the brain? They both are quick and end the same way.