South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s story about killing her 14-month-old hunting dog has drawn criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike and grim jokes at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—only the latest scandal for a controversial Republican governor rumored to be on the shortlist for former President Donald’s vice presidential pick.
Noem is reportedly on the shortlist to serve as Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee.
Ana Navarro, a former Republican political strategist, said Noem was “auditioning for Cruella De Vil” in a panel on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning.
S.E. Cupp, another Republican pundit who also hunts with dogs, pointed out that “there are 592 other things you can do with a dog that won't hunt besides kill it in front of your kid and construction workers.”
The night before, comedian Matt Friend mocked Noem in Trump’s voice at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, saying he was “killing this dinner harder than Kristi Noem kills the puppies”—drawing gasps from the crowd in Washington.
Ryan Busse, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Montana, criticized Noem as a hunting dog owner on social media, writing “anyone who has ever owned a birddog knows how disgusting, lazy and evil this is.”
“Our message is plain and simple: If you want elected officials who don’t brag about brutally killing their pets as part of their self-promotional book tour, then listen to our owners – and vote Democrat,” the Democratic National Committee said in a statement in the voice of their dogs on Friday, also pointing out Noem’s past controversial position on forcing child rape victims to carry pregnancies to term.
Noem recalled the story of killing her 14-month-old hunting dog Cricket in an excerpt of her upcoming memoir obtained by The Guardian on Friday. In the excerpt, she called her dog “untrainable” after she ruined a pheasant hunt and broke into a neighbor’s chicken coop. In response, Noem said she shot and killed Cricket in a gravel pit in front of a group of construction workers. Her daughter tragically asked the South Dakota governor “Hey, where’s Cricket?” after returning home from school that day. Noem defended her actions in a post on X, claiming “we love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.” Noem is reportedly on the shortlist to be Trump’s vice presidential nominee, but has been embroiled in several scandals over the last year, including a social media post that appears to be an infomercial for a cosmetic dentistry business in Texas.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund ranks South Dakota 40th in the nation for its laws protecting animals, in what the animal rights group calls the “bottom tier” of states. However, South Dakota’s animal cruelty law still bans animal owners from subjecting an animal to “cruelty,” which it defines as “intentionally, willfully, and maliciously inflict gross physical abuse on an animal that causes prolonged pain, that causes serious physical injury, or that results in the death of the animal.” It is unclear if Noem could face any legal repercussions—the statute of limitations for Class 6 felonies like animal cruelty only lasts seven years, and Noem said the incident took place when her adult daughter was a child.