PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – Who’s to blame for the outrage about South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s fatal shootings of a dog and goat? “Fake news,” according to her.
Noem, a Republican, appeared Wednesday night on Fox News with anchor Sean Hannity for her first interview since the story broke last week. Hannity said Noem “is being attacked by both Republicans and Democrats, dog lovers and goat lovers.”
Noem chose to disclose the dog and goat story in her book “No Going Back,” which is scheduled to be published next week. Noem wrote that she had a 14-month-old wirehair pointer years ago named Cricket, from another family that struggled with the dog’s aggressive personality.
The dog went “out of her mind with excitement” during a pheasant hunt with Noem, and later killed a neighbor’s chickens and “whipped around to bite” Noem when she intervened. So Noem took the dog to a gravel pit and fatally shot it. Noem said state law allows for the killing of dangerous dogs such as Cricket. She did not address the legality of shooting the goat.
“Walking back up to the yard,” Noem wrote, “I spotted our billy goat.” The “demon goat” often chased and knocked down Noem’s children, and it had a “wretched smell.” So Noem “dragged” the goat to the gravel pit and “tied him to a post.” The goat jumped when she shot, “and I needed one more shell to finish the job,” she wrote. But she didn’t have one, so she hurried back to her pickup, grabbed another shell, went back to the gravel pit, and “put him down.”
“The reason it’s in the book is because this book is filled with tough, challenging decisions that I have had to make throughout my life,” Noem said. “And I hope that people understand from this that what the point of the story is, is that most politicians will run from the truth. They will shy away and hide from making tough decisions. I don’t do either of those.”
She described the backlash as a continuation of criticism directed at her during the COVID-19 pandemic when she avoided strict lockdowns.
Comments