South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem wants the world to know she has done a lot of things in her life, including killing a female dog and a goat all in the same day.
Ms. Noem shares the tale in the book “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward” that she plans to release next month, according to a copy obtained by The Guardian.
Ms. Noem, a Republican who is considered a top contender to be former President Trump’s 2024 running mate, relayed the story to show she is willing to do what it takes to get things done even if they are “difficult, messy and ugly.”
Named Cricket, the dog was an aggressive 14-month-old wirehaired pointer which Ms. Noem hoped to train to hunt pheasant.
Cricket had other ideas.
Ms. Noem failed to get the dog to behave. It chased away birds, ruining her hunt.
But Cricket was not done.
On their way home Cricket escaped from Ms. Noem’s truck and killed a local family’s chickens.
Describing Cricket as a “trained assassin,” Ms. Noem said the dog systematically snatched “one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.”
Ms. Noem said she cut the shaken family a check to cover the cost of the canine slaughter.
She also realized Cricket was a lost cause.
Ms. Noem proceeded to do what she felt she needed to do: brought Cricket to a gravel pit and shot her dead.
“It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done,” she says in the book. “And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.”
Enter the unruly goat, who had no name.
Ms. Noem said the goat was “nasty and mean” because it had not been castrated. It also stunk.
Sticking with what worked, Ms Noem returned to the gravel pit to kill the goat.
It did not go smoothly.
After jumping out of the way, the smelly goat was only wounded by the first shot.
Ms. Noem got another shell from her truck. She did not miss the second time, finishing the job.
Soon after she realized construction workers witnessed both executions, and soon after, the school bus dropped off her daughter, Kennedy.
“Kennedy looked around confused,” Ms. Noem said of her daughter, who asked: “Hey, where’s Cricket?”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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