cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/20120801

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.

  • Blaubarschmann@feddit.de
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    2 months ago

    Sure, your young dog, who is still being trained, does something bad because of whatever reason, and instead of trying to find out why that happened and what could be done to prevent it in the future, the first solution you come up with is to kill the dog?? That’s not being able to act on tough decisions, that’s poor judgement, lack of empathy, signs of psychopathy and just being a bad person

    • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      If an animal has killed other people’s pets and attacked humans, I think that’s past the point of speculating about how you might possibly get it to not do those things in the future. More likely some half measures will be taken, that will fail, and it will happen again. I am biased but dogs that kill other pets should be put down as a matter of law.

      • wjrii@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yeah, she grew up on a farm, animals are tools, yadda yadda yadda. I can accept that decisions sometimes have to be made that are not meant to be cruel. Here though, the fact that she made the call unilaterally, casually, and without considering other options that might have been available for a dog but not other “livestock.” She also stated that she “hated” the dog. Then, the way the article phrases it, it sounds like she got her blood up and decided that it was the day to do all her up close and personal killin’ and took out the goat she didn’t like. Oh, and let’s also not forget that her kids clearly liked the dog. This is what she decides add to her political bona fides.

        There’s doing what has to be done, and then there’s seeming to get off on killing things that are less powerful than you but refuse to bend to your desires.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        2 months ago

        My childhood dog killed the family of rabbits in our backyard the first spring we had him. Should we have put him down then and there since he was clearly a killer? What about ky husky that kills ever opossum that she comes across? Dogs are predators and it takes training to keep their killer instincts under control, and even then you can inly do so much.

        • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          I think it is a little different if it is your own pets vs someone else’s. Why should the rest of community trust the judgment and ability of someone to retrain their dog after something like that, and their assurances that it won’t happen again?

          and even then you can inly do so much.

          If there’s a very high chance keeping a dog is going to result in violence being done to the people around you and their pets, maybe it shouldn’t be an option in the first place. Breeds of dogs with very high prey drives, ownership of them should probably be more restricted than it is.

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    and then someone on some lemmy instance wrote a long ass comment defending it, and explaining how he killed his own dog too. By suffocating it.

    • wjrii@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I read that, and while some of the possible implications are concerning, that was a beloved and elderly dog and OP claims they tried to make it painless and less scary than euthanasia. I am iffy on some of the decisions that were made, but the story as told is pretty much the inverse of an annoyed jackass shooting a 14 month old dog because its training was not going well and she “hated” it.

      • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        claims the tried to make it painless

        You know whats actually painless? taking them to the vet. where they can be rendered unconscious before stopping their hearts.

        not strangling them

  • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I don’t think a veterinarian would vote for her. When a veterinarian decides to euthanize an animal, it is usually because someone has been attacked and has been admitted to a hospital, with documentation to detail the extent of the injuries. A police report is usually filed, and then the police typically cite the owner. I’m pretty sure it is put before a judge, with regard to whether or not euthanasia is necessary. At that point, a veterinarian would then euthanize the dog through an IV. I don’t think shooting a dog, on the spot, is recommended by a veterinarian.

    You know who shoots a dog? Someone who has stumbled upon a dog that is so badly injured from an accident, that it’s dying, and no local veterinary clinic is open, or available to euthanize it.

    This woman needs a mental health evaluation.

  • xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    After that, she thought, “fuck this goat in partcular” and proceeds to shoot it but failed to kill it, then having it suffer for long because she needs to walk to her truck for more bullets.