South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem continues to defend her reasoning behind shooting her 14-month-old dog.
“It was a dog that was extremely dangerous. It had come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive,” she said on Sean Hannity’s show Wednesday on the Fox News Channel.
“We were her second chance, and she was — the day she was put down was a day that she massacred livestock that were part of our neighbors,” she added. “She attacked me, and it was a hard decision.”
She said she hopes people will read her book that’s coming out this month, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” to see that she “had a choice between keeping my small children and other people safe or a dangerous animal, and I chose the safety of my children.”
Democrats were quick to criticize Ms. Noem, a Republican who was considered a top contender to be former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, for the book’s excerpt that talked about shooting her wirehaired pointer after it killed another family’s chicken flock. She was training Cricket to hunt pheasants, but the dog was a lost cause.
“It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done,” she wrote in the book. “And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.”
She also killed a “nasty and mean” goat after she killed the dog.
Democratic governors started sharing pictures of themselves with their dogs, and the Democratic National Committee slammed the excerpt, referring to its own Dogmocratic Party.
Hillary Clinton joked about the excerpt as well, referencing a social media post she made in 2021 that said, “Don’t vote for anyone you wouldn’t trust with your dog.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, Utah Republican, refuted the comparisons between Ms. Noem’s story and when he had the family dog ride on top of his car, an experience that went viral during his run for president in 2012.
“I didn’t eat my dog. I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me,” he said.
In a lengthy X post Sunday, Ms. Noem said the “book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned.
“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.”
Reports have revealed that Ms. Noem’s chances of becoming Mr. Trump’s vice president have become slim to none after reaction to her dog story.
“To a person, everyone agrees she killed her chances, pun intended,” Sean Spicer, Mr. Trump’s former White House press secretary, told ABC News.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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