Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) blamed the “fake news” media for recent backlash following the release of an excerpt from her book detailing how she fatally shot her hunting dog 20 years ago.
An excerpt from No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward revealed that Noem “hated” her 14-month-old dog because it was “less than worthless” at hunting after attacking a neighbor’s chickens and also attacking her.
“This dog had come to us from another family that had already found her to be too aggressive. They’d had issues before and we had. We put her through months of training and were working with her,” Noem said of the dog on Fox News’s Hannity.
“You know how the fake news works,” Noem added. “They leave out some or most of the facts of a story, they put the worst spin on it. And that’s what happened in this case. I hope people really do buy this book and find out the truth of this story.”
The governor claimed she was right under the law as the dog, a wirehaired pointer, had killed livestock. However, chickens are not considered livestock under South Dakota law.
“The reason it’s in the book is because this book is filled with tough, challenging decisions I’ve had to make throughout my life and I hope that people understand from this that what the point of the story is is that most politicians, they will run from the truth, they will shy away and hide from making tough decisions. I don’t do either of those. I tell the truth and I make tough decisions,” Noem said. “I just hope people will read the book, find out the truth, because this was a dangerous animal and I had a choice between keeping my small children and other people safe or a dangerous animal and I chose the safety of my children.”
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This interview came after Noem defended her actions in a post, saying, “Tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm,” and claimed three horses were euthanized after 25 years, which is the average lifespan of a horse. Wirehaired pointers, such as the one Noem fatally shot, typically live about 12 years.
Along with being the governor, Noem has been rumored to be on former President Donald Trump’s list of potential running mates. Trump has yet to select a candidate to join him on the ticket.