The Guardian obtained a copy of Noem’s soon-to-be released book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.” In it, she tells the story of the ill-fated Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer she was training for pheasant hunting.

On the way home from the hunting trip, Noem writes that she stopped to talk to a family. Cricket got out of Noem’s truck and attacked and killed some of the family’s chickens, then bit the governor.

“At that moment,” Noem writes, “I realized I had to put her down.” She led Cricket to a gravel pit and killed her.

She writes, according to the Guardian, that the tale was included to show her willingness to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” if it has to be done. But backlash was swift against the Republican governor, who just a month ago drew attention and criticism for posting an infomercial-like video about cosmetic dental surgery she received out-of-state.

  • Alto
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    1 year ago

    Actual psychopath behavior. Bet she’s going to wonder why her kids despise her.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    I mean I get why some people feel it’s necessary to put down an aggressive dog, but holy shit, bragging about it just makes you look like a psychopath… when in Rome, I guess 🤷‍♂️

    • mars296
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      351 year ago

      She was training the dog to hunt pheasants. The dog attacked chickens (pheasants)… And bit her while she was trying to stop it. There was 0 need to kill that dog.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      People attacked him for his character, that he couldn’t be president for this. And I agree, those in high office must be held to the highest standard.

      But my god, where are we now??

    • @[email protected]
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      321 year ago

      Cause they think of dogs as property, like furniture. I remember Romney told that story thinking it was funny. They will scream about “tHe UnBoRn” while showing cruelty to living beings.

      • @[email protected]
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        121 year ago

        God, you can tell he grew up in a cult cause he never realized how he sounded to other people. The “Binders full of women” comment and him accusing a bakery owner of giving him 7-11 cookies were so fucking weird.

  • prole
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    171 year ago

    Unfortunately, this will end up being a positive for the base.

    • @[email protected]
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      141 year ago

      They’re all defending her on her Facebook post about it,saying it’s a reality of living on a ranch. It just further cements my conviction that conservatives are lacking in conscience. They squawk on and on about abortion being so wrong, but literally killing a literal sentient being for some behavior problem versus removing a few cells is completely beyond their comprehension. They’re so cognitively dull.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 year ago

          Not really a distinction worth making when surrendering or adopting out a dog is just a pipeline to Euthanization anyways. This dog bit a human being, killed small animals for sport, it’s far too late to salvage.

          • Flying Squid
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            71 year ago

            There are plenty of no kill shelters. This county’s shelter is no kill.

              • Flying Squid
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                51 year ago

                The one here is not selective. It serves a county of 100,000 people. The surrounding counties also have no-kill shelters.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          91 year ago

          True, but they often send them back to where they adopted them from … when shelters are often overflowing.

          • Flying Squid
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            281 year ago

            Giving the dog another chance to be adopted is a hell of a lot better than having it follow you to a gravel pit and then killing it.

          • @[email protected]
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            91 year ago

            So what’s your point, genius? That we shouldn’t view her how she deserves to be viewed, I.e. a horrible person who shouldn’t be near any kind of grown up profession?

    • @[email protected]
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      271 year ago

      Not true. She trained it to chase pheasants all day before it attacked the chickens. It did exactly what she trained it to do.

  • @[email protected]
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    81 year ago

    I saw this last night scrolling through YouTube and only read the top line… “shot and killed” WHAT?!? … then read the second line. Still, WTF?!

  • @[email protected]
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    741 year ago

    I grew up in the country, raised chickens with my folks, so I get that farm dogs are different than indoor pets, I’ve had to put down a few dogs in my day due to old yeller situations but I’ve never put a dog down for being a shitty dog trainer, something that Republicans seem to really love bragging about.

    • @[email protected]
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      451 year ago

      The point is to show she can intentionally and decisively be cruel and mean, especially to an animal under her custody. This is seen as a desirable character trait to Trump’s followers.

      • @[email protected]
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        61 year ago

        I mean SS troops had to kill the dog that they raised as a puppy through their entire training to prove their dedication to Hitler.

            • @[email protected]
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              1 year ago

              Some of us have heard about it.

              https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/03/evil-in-the-making/#:~:text=DE%20SWAAN%3A%20For%20example%2C%20they,was%20necessary%20for%20the%20Volk.

              (Link from a few comments above)

              • @[email protected]
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                1 year ago

                Initial answer when the comment had nos source: Source: Trust me bro.

                The linked interview has one(!) offhand comment by Abram de Swaan about the alleged practise. The interview is in part to promote his book “The Killing Compartments: The Mentality of Mass Murder.” which of course features Nazi Germany quite a bit. So I went ahead and downloaded said book. The words ‘dog’, ‘puppy’ ,or ‘pet’ are mentioned zero times in the entirety of the book.

                Trying to find the book and more sources for the allegation I came up with nothing else.

                While “SS-Troops” (idiotic generalisation in this case) like the SS-Totenkopfverbände did many fucked up thinks and would be fucked up enough to feature the alleged dog killings in their training - there is so far no proof whatsoever.

                If this were the case it would be in every other movie about WW2. It’s in Kingsmen FFS, where the good guys do this as part of their training.

                Sorry, I have to call BS on this one.

                • @[email protected]
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                  11 year ago

                  Source: Harvard.edu

                  https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/03/evil-in-the-making/#:~:text=DE%20SWAAN%3A%20For%20example%2C%20they,was%20necessary%20for%20the%20Volk.

            • @[email protected]
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              41 year ago

              By that logic Ea-Nasir didnt sell high quality copper until the rediscovery of his tablets. Obscurity doesnt equal it didnt happen.

              • @[email protected]
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                1 year ago

                You’re comparing apples to Nazis.

                ELI5 for the intellectually challenged downvoting this:

                Apple: Ea-nāṣir - one random dude c. 1750 BCE.

                Nazis: The OG Nazis 1933 - 1945 that murdered millions of people.

                The comparison is incredibly stupid. You might just as well liken a speck of dust to a planet.

            • @[email protected]
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              The linked interview has one(!) offhand comment by Abram de Swaan about the alleged practise. The interview is in part to promote his book “The Killing Compartments: The Mentality of Mass Murder.” which of course features Nazi Germany quite a bit. So I went ahead and downloaded said book. The words ‘dog’, ‘puppy’ ,or ‘pet’ are mentioned zero times in the entirety of the book.

              Trying to find the book and more sources for the allegation I came up with nothing else.

              While “SS-Troops” (idiotic generalisation in this case) like the SS-Totenkopfverbände did many fucked up thinks and would be fucked up enough to feature the alleged dog killings in their training - there is so far no proof whatsoever.

              If this were the case it would be in every other movie about WW2. It’s in Kingsmen FFS, where the good guys do this as part of their training.

              Sorry, I have to call BS on this one.

        • TheRealKuni
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          61 year ago

          I think you’re thinking of Game of Thrones and the Unsullied. 😂

          (In all seriousness I know this is an urban legend told about many different military organizations around the world. I don’t know if there’s any truth to it.)

            • @[email protected]
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              1 year ago

              The linked interview has one(!) offhand comment by Abram de Swaan about the alleged practise. The interview is in part to promote his book “The Killing Compartments: The Mentality of Mass Murder.” which of course features Nazi Germany quite a bit. So I went ahead and downloaded said book. The words ‘dog’, ‘puppy’ ,or ‘pet’ are mentioned zero times in the entirety of the book.

              Trying to find the book and more sources for the allegation I came up with nothing else.

              While “SS-Troops” (idiotic generalisation in this case) like the SS-Totenkopfverbände did many fucked up thinks and would be fucked up enough to feature the alleged dog killings in their training - there is so far no proof whatsoever.

              If this were the case it would be in every other movie about WW2. It’s in Kingsmen FFS, where the good guys do this as part of their training.

              Sorry, I have to call BS on this one.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          Anyone who willingly wears a badge or military uniform would kill their mother given the order. These symbols are identification showing us exactly who is preventing societal progress.

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        The point is to show she can intentionally and decisively be cruel and mean, especially to an animal under her custody.

        Combine that with Trump labeling groups he doesn’t like as a bunch of animals and it gets even scarier to think that they might join forces.

    • @[email protected]
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      81 year ago

      This. Dogs do aggressive things when they are stressed. Maybe the dog acted out due to all the beatings from the governor.

  • @[email protected]
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    I want to chime in that she did the responsible thing, here. Don’t let that emotional animal part of your brain think “how dare she harm the puppers” when she clearly couldn’t control, contain, or responsibly own this animal. Putting it in the pound would have solved nothing. She did the right thing and I have no idea why we’re even discussing it.

    Every single action leading up to that point, though, that was on her.

    • @[email protected]
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      131 year ago

      Naw, just give the dog to a rescue, even a no kill shelter would have been fine, that’s likely a pure breed GWP (German wirehair pointer). There aren’t GWPs just running around loose on the streets, not hard to re-home.

      Just an fyi on no-kill shelters, they are no-kill because they are incredibly selective on animals they take in, they are specifically looking for adoptable animals, this would be one they would take on a heartbeat. Hunting dogs killing chickens is an INCREDIBLY common problem.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        Shelters overflow with these animals in the USA. I doubt that they would accept this animal at a no-kill, it bit a person. I think the choice she made at the end minimized harm and suffering for the dog and others.

        • @[email protected]
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          71 year ago

          They would! Poorly trained hunting dogs nipping or biting while in prey-drive is also incredibly common. I have seen this exact story play it with a Brittany Spaniel, rescue and no kills would take this 2 year old, put it in a very brief bite quarantine, then train it.

          Like it’s a story that rescues and shelters hear all the time! Especially in heavy hunting areas

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    I had a coworker years ago who was rather obnoxious and I sort of had to tiptoe around her moods. Another staff member dropped by the office and was talking about how she had to take her beloved cat into the vet as it had some injury or illness, I don’t recall what, just office chitchat kind of thing and the cat ended up fine. Moody Woman announced that she had a cat years ago that got into paint thinner or something that had injured it and it was running around screaming, and she said “I didn’t have money for a vet, so I took it out back and chopped its head off with a shovel”.

    And then when we stared at her in absolute horror, she said in a flippant way, “Don’t look at me like that, I couldn’t listen to that noise”.

    Like it was just no big deal. I had to share an office with her for months after that, and I just avoided speaking to her as much as possible. How could you possibly do that?

    ETA: I also worked with nurses who would steal insulin from the med cart and euthanize barn cats with it. That is according to my vet friend not a humane way to euthanize an animal.

      • TheRealKuni
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        81 year ago

        We got our current dog because his previous owners of nearly eight years adopted a new puppy, and their old dog didn’t like the puppy. So they rehomed their old dog, rather than the puppy.

        This dog is the chillest dog ever. Vets love him, groomers love him, we love him. He doesn’t do well with other dogs because they never trained him to.

        I think it’s kind of terrible that they chose the puppy, but at the same time I’m so grateful they did because we love our little guy.

      • @[email protected]
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        61 year ago

        The right thing to do absolutely. I foster dogs for a rescue and some of them have come to me because the owner had a change in life circumstances. That happens, like one owner had to go into affordable housing and couldn’t take the dog, was devastated by it. Said dog is sitting looking at me with eyes of love as I type, five years after I adopted him. So it can end happily but you have to make an effort.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      Is it better to have someone else do it? Easier for sure, but is it actually better from an ethical standpoint?

    • Flying Squid
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      381 year ago

      Easy- her dog was a hunting tool, not a pet, so she got rid of it when she didn’t like it. She is incapable of feeling affection for anything but herself and she already made that very clear before putting out the book.

      • @[email protected]
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        191 year ago

        Agreed, I mean if a dog is dying and suffering, then I accept euthanasia but when a young healthy dog is killed just because you can’t handle it, you are a cunt.

    • Flying Squid
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      121 year ago

      It’s South Dakota. I’m guessing shooting your dog doesn’t count as animal cruelty there.

  • @[email protected]
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    1091 year ago

    “I hated that dog,” Noem writes, deeming her “untrainable.”

    Sounds sane to me. Hating animals is cool.

    • Flying Squid
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      1 year ago

      I have a pretty close to untrainable dog (she basically flunked out of obedience training) because she’s incredibly stubborn and I still love her with all of my heart.

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        That’s the right answer. My kitties keep eating the flowers my partner brought home. We don’t get mad at them. They’re cats!

        • Flying Squid
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          11 year ago

          My dog once brought in half a rabbit through the dog door in the middle of the night and there was blood everywhere. We never found the other half of the rabbit.

          Strangely enough, I didn’t lead her into a gravel pit and shoot her, I just told her she was a bad dog.

  • @[email protected]
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    1331 year ago

    Authoritarian virtue signaling.

    I’m willing to murder my dog who else do you think I’m willing to murder? So how about you make me your VP?

    • Flying Squid
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      171 year ago

      Her response would be that it’s okay becase “dogs don’t have souls.”

      My response to that is, “neither do you,” but I’m guessing she wouldn’t agree there.