You’ve read about Clifford the Big Red Dog, but have you heard of Cricket the little dead dog?
If you’ve been on social media in the last 24 hours, you likely have. The deceased former dog of Gov. Kristi Noem’s is going viral after Noem admitted to killing it for a pattern of bad behavior.
“Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old, and she had come to us from a home that struggled with her aggressive personality,” Noem writes in her book “No Going Back,” set to release to the public on May 7.
Cricket would go on, in Noem’s words, to ruin a day of hunting for her and a group of pheasant hunters staying at her family’s lodge.
According to Noem’s retelling, the dog would jump out of her truck on their way home from the hunt and kill several chickens belonging to a family friend, forcing the governor to pay out-of-pocket to a distraught family for damages. Noem says the dog attempted to bite her when she went to grab it.
“As I drove home, I realized that I had no choice. Cricket was untrainable and, after trying to bite me, dangerous to anyone she came in contact with. A dog who bites is dangerous and unpredictable — especially if you are running a business where people interact with your dogs.”
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Cricket wasn’t alone. Noem decided in that moment to kill a “smelly” goat she owned that had been mean to her children for years. Noem put two shotgun slugs in the goat while a group of construction workers looked on.
Noem’s now famous retelling from the book — intended to show her ability to make “difficult, messy and ugly” decisions as a leader — has generated international blowback and millions of posts to social media, as posters criticize and debate the governor’s decision to shoot the dog.
#KristiNoemIsAMonster and #PuppyKiller have both become top trends on the social media website X, formerly known as Twitter, since the book’s passage was originally revealed by The Guardian. Many have posted pictures of their own dogs to express abhorrence with Noem’s choice.
“There’s nothing you can say to justify shooting an 18-month-old puppy in the face and killing it,” right-wing political troll Catturd wrote to X. “NOTHING!”
Fellow governors have taken notice, too. Democrats Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Tim Walz of neighboring Minnesota have been among a handful of governors to post pictures with their dogs under the caption “Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit.”
Florida Gov. and Noem nemesis Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey were more subtle in taking jabs at the governor, offering up ways to adopt dogs from a local shelter. Noem came out hard for presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump while DeSantis was still in the race.
Noem responded to the uproar, defending her decision.
Tough decisions have to be made on farms, Noem says
“We love animals,” she wrote on X, “but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”
Some have risen to Noem’s defense, arguing that ranch life often requires tough decision making.
“You don’t pawn off your problems onto others to clean up, and a 14-month old dog that bites people and kills livestock is a mess that needs cleaned up,” noted South Dakotan Breeauna Sagdal. “Stop judging from your ivory tower, and instead try to understand what we consider to be a responsibility. It’s not pleasant. It’s simply what must be done.”
While many have speculated the hound hiccup could spell the end of Noem’s bid to become Trump’s running mate — a position she’s considered to be a frontrunner for — others have noted the governor’s surviving similarly sized political controversies. Just last month, Noem received national attention and a civil lawsuit for an informercial-style social media post she wrote in favor of Smile Texas, a Houston-area company that gave her veneers. Though legal action is still pending, the debacle disappeared from national headlines in less than a week.
Also of note, former President Trump is a notorious disliker of dogs.
“Noem wants to be VP. Noem is close to Corey Lewandowski who is a thuggish guy who thinks talking tough is a core part of MAGA and essential to impressing Trump,” wrote Jonah Goldberg, a famous anti-Trump conservative commentator. “(A) willingness to shoot a happy dog is not really transferable to politics. But I think she thinks Trump doesn’t see it that way.”