(TargetDailyNews.com) – Voters often like candor and tough talk from politicians, but South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is learning that the subject of that kind of rhetoric makes a difference. Voters, politicians, and commentators are condemning her for an anecdote from her new book about killing an aggressive dog.
In “No Going Back,” Noem spends some time talking about what it’s like to live on a working farm where animals all pull their weight. She reaches back 20 years to describe her then-dog, Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer Noem was hoping to train to hunt for birds and game. She claims Cricket was aggressive and killed several chickens belonging to a neighbor, and after the dog turned around and bit her, she feared Cricket would also snap at her children.
So Noem led Cricket to a gravel pit and shot her. The politician claims that Cricket was untrainable and that she was following standard farm practice and her state’s law, which allows dangerous animals to be put down.
That’s not how most others see it. Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren said, “The story is not landing,” claiming that rural ranch life does not include killing dogs. Joan Payton of the German Wirehaired Pointer (dog) Club said Noem had “murdered” her dog, which she should have known was a “high-energy” breed.
Many commenting, including farmers and ranchers, claim that Noem must not have trained the dog correctly. They say she could have and should have worked with the dog more carefully before resorting to killing Cricket.
On the other hand, Noem claims nothing worked, including an electric shock collar, which many dog lovers also take issue with. In her book, Noem characterized the shooting as a hard decision she had to make, apparently believing she would come across to voters as a tough politician unafraid of difficult choices.
Instead, she’s being called a dog killer, a sociopath, and a real-life version of the Disney villainess Cruella De Vil, who rounded up Dalmatian puppies to skin them for a fashion coat.
A Democratic lawmaker from Noem’s state has an even darker view. Reynold Nisiba claims there has long been a rumor that Noem has an anger problem and that witnesses saw her kill the dog in a fit of rage.
Defending herself, Noem refers to the controversy as “fake news.”
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