"No Going Back" is her book, which you can't read yet, but you can read the snippet about her whippet... I mean her wirehair pointer... in this Guardian article, which she shows a screenshot of but I had to look up. Here:
“Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” the South Dakota governor writes in a new book, adding that the dog, a female, had an “aggressive personality” and needed to be trained to be used for hunting pheasant. What unfolds over the next few pages shows how that effort went very wrong indeed – and, remarkably, how Cricket was not the only domestic animal Noem chose to kill one day in hunting season....
She includes her story about the ill-fated Cricket, she says, to illustrate her willingness, in politics as well as in South Dakota life, to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” if it simply needs to be done....
And she's asking us to trust her as the one who will — if she becomes President — decide what needs to be done... not just for a South Dakota farm, but for the whole world. I guess there's always a fear that a woman will be too empathetic, too mired in considering everything from everybody else's point of view and dangerously indecisive.
By taking Cricket on a pheasant hunt with older dogs, Noem says, she hoped to calm the young dog down and begin to teach her how to behave. Unfortunately, Cricket ruined the hunt, going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life”. Noem describes calling Cricket, then using an electronic collar to attempt to bring her under control. Nothing worked. Then, on the way home after the hunt, as Noem stopped to talk to a local family, Cricket escaped Noem’s truck and attacked the family’s chickens, “grabb[ing] one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.” Cricket the untrainable dog, Noem writes, behaved like “a trained assassin”.
When Noem finally grabbed Cricket, she says, the dog “whipped around to bite me”. Then, as the chickens’ owner wept, Noem repeatedly apologised, wrote the shocked family a check “for the price they asked, and helped them dispose of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime.” Through it all, Noem says, Cricket was “the picture of pure joy.”
“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, adding that Cricket had proved herself “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog.”
“At that moment,” Noem says, “I realised I had to put her down.” Noem... got her gun, then led Cricket to a gravel pit. “It was not a pleasant job,” she writes, “but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realised another unpleasant job needed to be done.”
Incredibly, Noem’s tale of slaughter is not finished. Her family, she writes, also owned a male goat that was “nasty and mean”.... Noem decided to kill the unnamed goat the same way she had just killed Cricket the dog. But though she “dragged him to a gravel pit”, the goat jumped as she shot and therefore survived the wound. Noem says she went back to her truck, retrieved another shell, then “hurried back to the gravel pit and put him down.” At that point, Noem writes, she realised a construction crew had watched her kill both animals....
The option not to tell this story did not exist. There were witnesses. So she's getting the story out now, telling it herself, with her spin. Is she still in the running to be Trump's VP choice? Perhaps he's monitoring social media over the weekend, seeing how people are digesting the dead meat.
There's lots of negativity, of course, but who is it from? If it's from Trump haters, that might mean that Noem is a good choice, and they're trying to scare him off.
I'll do a poll:
Posts
107 comments:
I plan to vote for Trump, I haven't given enough thought to whom I hope he chooses as VP, I know little about Noem, and none of the poll answers apply to me because it sounds as if she did what had to be done, not "it's bad," but it doesn't make me like her more; my scant feelings about her as a possible VP (and as a possible president) are unaffected by this story.
She'll do a better job on the Border than Kamala Harris, that's for sure. None of those undesirables would dare to invade our homeland knowing a whippet killer was on fire watch.
Biden used in VP status to line his family pockets in secret. with international pay-to-play money.
The corrupt media and FBI lie and propagandize that-> that, and Hunter's laptop, are all "Russian Disinformation".
Life on a farm is tough. harsh decisions must be made.
A vicious dog can harm children, hurt other animals. I know - I was the 3rd little girl attacked by a vicious and poorly trained German Sheppard as a child.
Thanks to our BS corrupt press - Noem's life is over in Neo-Marxist 'merica.
FBI badly bungled sexual abuse case against USA Gymnastics doc Nassar: watchdog
"Dog"
I'm curious about what Prof. Althouse (or anyone else) would do with a dog that bit or attempted to bite its owner. It seems obvious to me that such a dog needs to be put down. What if it was a child instead of a chicken next time?
My family has raised hunting dogs for generations. Putting down aggressive dogs is unfortunate but part of it. A dog that kills neighbors chickens is an automatic out. It is expected of responsible owners in rural places…
…but the survey question is moot. None of it overcomes the fact Noem has a taste for GOPe-ing at the drop of a hat…
And yet Obama survived despite eating his.
It's be a truism since I can remember: You have to shoot your own dog. Hasn't anyone seen "Old Yeller"? And don't forget who Ned Stark's family thought should have to deal with their condemned criminals.
It's one thing to say something ugly has to be done and another to take responsibility and do it.
I have seen several pro-Trump X accounts that have turned against her over this. There were also some who posted about how her taking responsibility differs from how Biden handled his biting dogs. Among Trump supporters, I think it could be overcome if Noem is excellent in all other ways. I think it would alienate all the middle people who were swayed by the Romney dog story.
Saying the dog was having the time of her life is an unfortunate phrase. Also saying she hated the dog doesn't look good. It would have been better if she had said she loved the dog, but the family loved their chickens and Noem feared for the safety of any small animal or child.
I'm more interested in the idea of construction workers who would go to the media. They recognized her? They care about US elections? They want the attention of the media?
Once a dog kills stock, it can never be rehabilitated. Putting it down is not a choice. Build a flow chart for training farm dogs. Put in one box [Run sheep or kill chicken ] draw a single line to [put down dog]
I have recounted this here before.
When is was young, less than 10, a neighbor came up the lane about 7am. Unusual, farmers dont get visitors during chore time. He spoke to dad, and he called over our big beautiful full sized collie. The two looked in her mouth and the neighbor left. After we went to school, dad put our dog down and explained that night the neighbor suspected our dog was running his sheep and several had bite wounds.
In at the elevator, or sale barn, this is not really considered 'news'. It is as common as tornadoes. It just happens.
She's done. Americans worship dogs and place them somewhere over humans and under God.
The real story is she goes to kill the goat and only has one shell. If you come for the goat, best not miss.
is not true hunter ethos = ?eat what you kill?
The dog killed chickens, and tried to bite HER..
please compare and contrast with resident Biden, who TRAINS His dogs to bite?
Had old crook Joe done this - he'd be a stud on the Whie left lady "the view"
If you are using the murder of your dog to "show off", then that makes you a terrible person. It's like the guy who talks about his guns all the time. A combination of a psycho and a loser.
Viva Frei posts:
"It’s going to be really ironic if it turns out Commander has been euthanized.
You know, the dog that bit Secret Service agents over 24 times and was removed from the White House.
The second Biden dog that was removed from the White House.
The dog that Joe Biden allegedly abused?
Is Commander still alive?
#WhereIsCommander"
The Dems made a huge deal about Mitt Romney putting his dog in a crate and transporting it on top of his car. Their fake righteous indignation will be off the charts with this revelation. Politically, the VP slot is off the table for her now.
She should have been as tough with the NCAA.
There are no bad dogs, only bad owners. She's an asshole and needs to be put down herself. Politically speaking, of course. What is it with these women politicians who pose with rifles and act all, I don't know what? Like Sara Connor from Terminator, I guess, Lady Bad-Ass, ready to kill kill kill. Some poor dog at least.
Well, at least she's got the Secret Service vote.
Romney had binders full of women. That send the hivemind left over the edge.
This is going to force the left into a complete insane over-the-top melt down.
I suppose it would have been much better if she had called a vet and paid a few hundred dollars and had the animals “put to sleep.” On the farm, a bullet is a lot cheaper and faster. When I was a toddler I was bitten in my ear when I got tangled between a fight between our dog and my grandparent’s dog that came to live with us when they moved to town. The next morning there was only our dog left.
There are animals that seem to have faulty wiring from birth. You can’t “rehabilitate” them. Too many people are too many generations separated from the land, so to speak. I could write all day about how life in farming country is different from city life.
There are no bad dogs, only bad owners.
Said without evidence. People can suck, why not dogs?
Waiting for Joe Biden's latest whopper about how as a kid he'd roam the streets of Scranton taking out vicious Pit Bulls with his bare hands.
If she were a democrat - she'd be "bad ass"
That she is an R - the left will soon indict her.
My wife has always said that Americans in general have gotten a long way from the farm, where her grandmother used to wring chickens' necks.
Demmies have discovered a sure winner: GOP cruelty to dogs. Maybe Mitt Romney can get a few pointers on dog transport from Kristi.
Let's not forget about Demmies' transgressions:
Clinton and Buddy--Hillary's symbolic revenge castration of a pet that later threw himself under the wheels of an oncoming car.
LBJ picks a beagle by the ears--and that's not all. The strange deaths of of LBJ's pooches raise questions. https://www.lbjlibrary.org/life-and-legacy/the-man-himself/lbjs-dogs
Obama and Bo--a man and a meal. Who can forget Chip Ahoy's ominous photoshops?
Biden and those German shepherds--Brandon likes the viciousness.
I think countermeasures are available.
She is done. If you are explaining you are losing.
Romney had binders full of women. That pushed the hivemind left over the edge.
This is going to force the left into a complete insane over-the-top melt down.
No, but not because she shot the dog. She shot the dog badly. And the goat, wow. She didn't tie it?
@Mary Beth is right. You don't hate the dog. You hate yourself for not being a better caretaker of a dangerous animal.
Over concern with animals is a product of a childless life. That symptathy and concern should be focused on children, not animals. Animals are servants of man
There is a second option.
Tie it to a chain. Forever.
People that have never hunted or lived on a farm, and get their meat already butchered and wrapped in plastic, may take offense. She did a poor job of relaying the story, and a very poor job of killing the goat by not having additional rounds loaded or in her pocket.
I don't care much for her leadership - I think she's become too much of a politician, waffling when she thinks she can get away with it, and then falsely using imagery and props - like this story - to portray herself as Frontier Lady. She has caved where she should have been iron - that's what I remember.
No American should accept anything less than perfection in their leaders.
I don't have a problem with what she did. Was she supposed to take it to a pound that would them kill the dog? That said, enough people will have a problem with it that she likely will be out of the running for VP.
"I'm curious about what Prof. Althouse (or anyone else) would do with a dog that bit or attempted to bite its owner. It seems obvious to me that such a dog needs to be put down. What if it was a child instead of a chicken next time?"
I am not upset that she euthanized her dog and that she did so using a gun. I am not in the set of people who defend harboring dangerous dogs. But was it her fault the dog was bad? That would be my concern.
I think that causing the goat to suffer was the worst part of all of this, and I'm interested that most of the talk is about the dog. People aren't so sentimental about goats
Chicken killing dogs that snap at their owners cannot survive on a farm. Still, the demise of the dog adds nothing to the story of a politician. She was foolish to include the dog and the goat.
I could write all day about how life in farming country is different from city life.
True, true. I've known two dogs (chickens), one wolf (sheep), and one bear (sheep) shot without question for attacking livestock. And that doesn't include coyotes, foxes, weasels, skunks, and other assorted pests.
I get a kick reading about urban couples trying to make a go in the countryside and discovering that cute little bunnies are eating their crops, and that is not to mention birds and insects. Nature doesn't care. It is a competitive environment and if you sit out the game, you lose.
Don't forget Bob Kerrey's comparing the killing of Vietnamese villagers, to drowning unwanted kittens on the farm.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/06/bob-kerreys-return-to-vietnam-like-drowning-cats/
I have shot numerous deer in my day. "Field dressed" them. Identified the internals as my son watched so he could do the same. I am not squeamish, but when my dog had a massive stroke I thought I could the deed myself. Wrong, never again. And I didn't particular like this dog.
The dog killed farm animals- it had to be put down and Noem did it herself rather than delegate it to someone else. Anyone turned off of her over this was going to vote Democrat anyway, like Lonejustice, Chuck, and Rich.
And AMDG.
I voted No, but also said her dog story was a mistake that can be overcome. I don't think she made a mistake in killing the dog, people and animals have different relationships in the country, but I do think she made a mistake in including the story. That being said I would never vote for a Presidential candidate because of their VP pick, only not for a Candidate because of their pick. Noem is a fine choice in my book. Her performance during the pandemic was fairly good.
Reminds me of the story of Dan Devine's dog. When Devine was coach of the green bay packers, his dog would run wild and was killing the neighbor's chickens. But in that case, it was the neighbor who took care of the dog.
"Scooby-Dooby-Doo, where are you?
I can’t seem to find a satisfactory rhyme for Noem for my somewhat dark Scooby Doo theme song rewrite.
The truth is that she killed her dog because she was frustrated with her inability to train it…..
Her family, she writes, also owned a male goat that was “nasty and mean”.... Noem decided to kill the unnamed goat the same way she had just killed Cricket the dog.
And now, a rebuttal from Goat Boy:
"Animals have urges they can't contrrroool!"
Wild chicken is right. Vast swaths of Americans prefer dogs over children.
But was it her fault the dog was bad? That would be my concern.
Sometimes a dog, like a person, is simply bad. They aren't wired right to fit into civilized society. She may have made mistakes in how she tried to train it which made things worse, but that doesn't negate the need to deal with the dog as it has become.
Anyone who grew up near a farm will understand this. Anyone who breeds dogs too.
This is nothing. I'm concerned she was improperly ammo'ed to take down the goat. But that's a minor transgression.
Watch the vet shows and you will see how challenging animal husbandry is, responsible care of animals sometimes involves life ending choices.
The opposition will always make issue with any circumstance that they can use as a wedge issue. If you can't make tough decisions and deal with harsh realities, don't run a farm and don't run for office. Noem should take a page from Trump and embrace who she is and never back down (don't be a Romney. Nice Republicans don't fare well in national politics.)
Noem's murderous rage and hatred is aroused by willful disobedience and is not easily sated.
Will she respond to Americans who don't obey her commands in the same way? How does she feel about the death of Ashli Babbitt, I wonder?
Who is she trying to impress here with her ability to do the dirty work that needs to be done? The voters or the authoritarians of the deep state?
Prof. Althouse,
I have a few pet theories about humans' fondness for certain animals over others.
Goats' eyes have oblong and lateral pupils and pale irises so there's a high contrast and they're quite visible. That makes them more reptilian-seeming and therefore more alien and less lovable.
If Noem were a Democratic governor of a Democratic-dominated state, the bitch Cricket would have spent the next 4 years(*) on death row, had a jailhouse conversion to Islam, filed a lawsuit about her incarceration that would go to the state Supreme Court, and railed against racism and the white (feathered) devils that put her behind bars in the first place.
(*) That's the equivalent of 20 human years.
Noem had other options. Killing the animals was unnecessary and self-indulgent.
And April Apple is correct- were Noem a Democrat, the press would be writing accolades at how badass Noem was over this.
rrsafety said...
"If you are using the murder of your dog to 'show off' ..."
If putting down a dog is "murder", then Noem should get a medal for stopping Chicken Genocide in its tracks.
Not a deal breaker. It's a fact of life in rural America.
I voted how I really feel about the situation. I don't care how people involved in animal husbandry deal with animals. I'm a benefactor.
Politically, I think the optics are bad. Obviously, this harkens back to Mitt Romney's treatment of his dog. I think Romney was hurt worst by his weak performance in the debates. And that weakness seems to continue to this day. She can overcome this (option 3 in the vote).
As chuck says, " Nature doesn't care. It is a competitive environment and if you sit out the game, you lose."
A lesson our nation may soon learn, if it is not careful
WTF was she thinking?
It's one thing to put down an animal, even if you have a good reason.
But if you're a politician and you put it in print, it doesn't say much about your judgment.
She always seemed a lightweight, and the 0.0001 electoral votes from her state don't mean anything, which is the real reason not to pick her has VP.
'And yet Obama survived despite eating his.'
There's a lesson here.
Shoot a dog and destroy your political career.
But slow-roast one with a nice reverse sear and a side of asparagus, and you're POTUS.
1. So-called humanitarianism toward non-human animals has gone too far. Rescue animals are often deranged in some way, possibly because of abuse. They can take over a family, don't do this, don't do that, consider the dog's feelings. And yes, the possibility of biting/attack is real. Selling dogs of mixed quality is a way for rural folk to make money off urban folk. Has Noem sold puppies?
2. The old Mitt story is funny. An American family with a cottage in Canada. Dog always goes with as they say in Minnesota.
3. I didn't weigh in on the elephant story. I would love a humane elephant show, presumably where the elephants live in a group. No train rides. I don't think it's a hardship for an elephant to perform tricks.
'...please compare and contrast with resident Biden, who TRAINS His dogs to bite?'
Where is Biden's dog(s) anyway?
Were they put down for biting Secret Service agents?
Will anyone ask the DEI press person?
NYT headline: "Bitch Kills Bitch."
We tend to believe that there is a direct link between acts of cruelty to animals and violence toward humans (including child abuse). So I think this is a problem even for people who are not dog lovers.
But please note, not all Americans love dogs. Dogs are actually kind of disgusting. They are occasionally violent and always filthy. Fleas,ticks and worms and they poo and urinate all over the place. No thanks. I own a building in densely populated area near Chicago. A sort of luxury high rise was built on a neighboring property (sort of luxury because half the tenants pay obscene rent and the other half are Section 8 psychotics). This building's dog owners have destroyed every patch of grass in a half mile radius. The dogs' feces are toxic to grass. But, apparently, rats love eating dog feces. So that's nice. And millennials with their fears and insecurities and intense anxiety issues are not good dog owners. These people's dogs are so aggressive that it is ridiculous. And what kind of a**hole buys a giant dog for her tiny apartment.
As a side note, if you know someone who is renting a $ 3,000 or $ 4,000 a month apartment, please tell them to stop. Buy a house or a condo or something.
I don't actually believe this is the case, but it would brilliant if it was. This is a parable where Biden is the dog (he owns dogs that bite) and Trump is the goat (nasty and mean.) And she is the person who can come in and clean it all up.
"You said your dog does not bite."
"That is not my dog."
"Did what had to be done." Yeah, sure. Never heard of a shelter, apparently. See you next Tuesday, you worthless piece of *(&^.
“Prevention of cruelty” talk cuts ice in town
Where they consider death unnatural,
But on a week run farm pests have to be kept down.
Seamus Heaney “Early Purges”
Sally327 said...
There are no bad dogs, only bad owners
People love to say this, but it simply is not the truth. Some dogs have bad dispositions and cannot be trusted. They may have other endearing qualities, but the underlying problem is real.
"...I'm interested that most of the talk is about the dog. People aren't so sentimental about goats."
I assume Althouse has turned her magnifying glass upon herself first. She set the tone for this conversation by her emphasis on the dog, particularly in her poll questions, no mention of the goat appears in them.
What bothers me is Noem's negligence in loading a second round in her shotgun (assuming that by the use of the term shell) or at least in her pocket before leading the goat to its place of disposal. What does that mean? That she rated her marksmanship too highly? That her emotional state clouded her foresight? Dunno. It's worrisome.
People are often mistaken in their assumptions about shotguns. It is in fact very easy to miss your target with a typical shotgun, particularly with a gun with a full choke or the modified choke preferred by most shooters for upland game birds. At five yards the dispersal of birdshot is a circle no greater than four inches, but who would choose birdshot to euthanize a goat? With buckshot, the dispersion circle is even tighter. If you must kill a goat with a firearm, I advise using a pistol loaded with 9mm 115-grain FJM target ammo -- completely lethal, and missed shots aren't likely to go very far. Pistol sights are more accurate at close range than the typical bead sight found on shotguns, and with at least 8 rounds on tap, you have plenty of chances to finish off a wounded goat quickly. As an added bonus, those full metal jacket bullets won't tear up the meat or the hide nearly as badly as buckshot if you choose to utilize the carcass.
I seriously considered shooting a nasty goat. I had purchased a gelding from a trainer at Penn National that came with a goat. I was told it would be virtually impossible to transport the horse without the goat -- so it was a case of buy-one-get-one-free. Back home I decided to tether the goat just outside my training arena to help calm the horse while we got to know each other. The goat had other ideas, however, such as standing on the roof of my car, not my beater farm truck, but my brand-new Audi. That was fucking distracting. Death to the goat! That was my first inclination, but what about the horse? No, shooting the goat was not a wise policy. Fortunately, I was able to re-school the horse rather quickly and sell him (and the goat) for a decent profit. The new owners liked the goat, treated him like a pet, and would have been shocked to hear about my drumhead verdict. Either they drove something other than a Teutonic performance sedan, or they were smart enough to keep the goat well away from temptation.
Fun Fact: a neutered male goat is called a wether.
Blogger Spiros said...
I own a building in densely populated area near Chicago. A sort of luxury high rise was built on a neighboring property (sort of luxury because half the tenants pay obscene rent and the other half are Section 8 psychotics).
A resident of The People's Republic of Oak Park?
Rich writes, "The truth is that she killed her dog because she was frustrated with her inability to train it."
Tell us a real truth, Rich, instead of a fake truth about something you cannot know. Start with an unvarnished veritas about yourself.
Howard writes, "She'll do a better job on the Border than Kamala Harris, that's for sure."
Epic-scale damning with faint praise. I have some bookends that would do the Veep job better than Kamala has, which is not to prejudge the vice-presidential caliber of the other inanimate objects of my household. I'll ask the firedogs about it later.
This isn't like Old Yeller. The way to handle a vicious dog today is to take it to the vet and have it put down.
Instead of making her "look strong," this makes her look like someone who can't control their anger.
Instead of making her "look smart," this makes her look like someone who can't control their own pets.
I have a longtime friend and former work colleague who grew up on a cattle ranch in Rhame, North Dakota. When I told him about my wife and kids being overwrought about our cat dying, he chuckled and shared the farm/ranch take on pets (dog or cat):
1. You have a pet dog and the dog has just died
2. You think of all the good memories you have of your time with said dog
3. You get another dog
4. You proceed to make some memories with your new dog
This isn't like Old Yeller. The way to handle a vicious dog today is to take it to the vet and have it put down.
Unless you live in a rural area and have a genuine country vet. He'll ask you if you can handle it. If you can, he'll say "Okay" and go to his next stop or keep the next appointment. There's a veterinarian shortage in many rural areas these days. They're very busy. (Just SSS.)
Thumbs up, Iman. We had to do that last year. Our elderly dog died during the night of natural causes; she was an outside dog. I lasted two weeks and said, "We need a dog." Adopted a private party rescue two days later. He's one of those crazy hyper labs but I don't think we've ever had a "normal" dog. We love him. Our previous dog was also a private rescue. They become very devoted.
Regular goats are "meh." Pigmy goats are cute.
I doubt DJT is considering Noem anyway, so her shooting prowess is no big deal.
I note that everyone seems to take the way this is reported as the unbiased truth. I am willing to take the bare bones facts to be as stated, but I'll wait on the book itself to form opinions as to Noem's state of mind. For starters, I've seen it said the Noem did not shoot the dog, but took it to the vet to be put down. True? I have no idea, but there you go.
It's too bad she let the story out the way she did, and it really wipes her out as a VP choice, but there's really not much substance behind her anyway. She would have been a liability for Trump had he chose her.
And, yes, as an ex-farm guy, I have killed dogs for the exact same reasons. You have to.
loudogblog writes, "Instead of making her "look strong," this makes her look like someone who can't control their anger."
Don't look now, but your soy is dripping.
Several have questioned noem writing about this and I see their point. But only if she could be sure the story would never get out.
Anyone dumb enough to believe it would not if she were nominated?
She did the right thing politically by getting her version out first on her own schedule.
I agree it may hurt her. But probably less this way.
John Henry
Why would have been better to have the dog killed by a vet or a pound?
Is there any moral difference between doing it oneself and paying someone else to do it?
John Henry
Working dogs are supposed to work. Her actions, while repellent to some/many is fairly common in her culture. It's better than just leaving them in the field and leaving.
Too lazy to train her dog. So careless the dog escapes from her truck.
This isn’t a tough decision.
Pence was bad enough. But like Kamala and Palin and Haley, she’s an airhead.
I did 1-4th grade at Burgundy school in Alexandria VA. Littarlywithin sight of the Washington Monument https://burgundyfarm.org/
In 3rd,as a class project, we raised a piglet from newborn to big. Parents schlepping kids in on weekends to feed it. It was a class pet with a name and all. But we knew, because we discussed it, the end of the story.
Come may on a Saturday family event for the whole school, hoisted the pig from a tree, slit the it's throat, scalded the hair, gutted it, roasted it and ate it.
Adults did the heavy lifting and explained how but 9-10 year old kids slit the throat and everthing else.
My wife, who knows where meat comes from and how is horrified at kids this young doing this.
The point of the exercise was that we learn about our food.
John Henry
Say all you want about Mitt Romney putting his dog on the top of his car, or Biden having dogs that bite. But at least Romney and Biden never murdered their dogs.
If we had needed to shoot our pig, we could have handled that too.
The school had its own rifle range and we learned riflry and firearm safety from 3rd grade.
Or done it Indian style. We also had archery lessons.
Not as after school activities. As part of the class curriculum.
7-8 miles from the Washington Monument. I just looked on maps.
John Henry
I understand the rationale, but why in the hell would you put it in a book?
A true and sad story here for the folks who worry about "murdering"dogs. Self disclosure here--I've owned dogs all my life. The dogs all lived out their normal lifespan and a bit more. But when life became difficult for them --or as my veterinarian once said, they can no longer enjoy their food, then I've taken them to the vet to have them put down. It's an act of love--and also an act of duty.
Now for the true and sad story; I live in a hilly suburb of Los Angeles. About a dozen years ago two Rottweilers--a mother and her two year old son-escaped from their owner's yard and had a high old time roaming the neighborhood for an entire afternoon. Dogs like to roam and smell things. About 5 pm the two dogs arrived at the corner of my cul de sac. A 12 year old girl was walking her miniature Poodle on a 6 foot leash. The male Rottweiler attacked the miniature Poodle and had almost killed it when a neighbor distracted the dog by banging a shovel on the sidewalk. The noise drove the Rottweiler off. The two Rottweilers ran up on the hillside behind my house. After that attack--had I lived on a farm and had a deer rifle (don't have such in the city) the male Rottweiler would have died of acute lead poisoning. Vicious dogs need to be put down.
About ten minutes later the police arrived and managed to capture the two dogs. They were taken to the local humane society. The owners of the dogs got the dogs from the humane society and took them home. At a court hearing the owners insisted that both dogs were "really gentle". The judge let the couple keep the dogs. A year later the owning couple went on a cruise. Their daughter and two year old granddaughter came by their home on an errand of some sort. The male Rottweiler attacked and killed the two year old child. Karma teaches hard lessons.
Vicious dogs need to be put down--period.
Remember how much controversy Aerosmith generated in 1973 when they sang,
"I'll show you how to wok the dog"?
I voted for Romney (reluctantly), but I thought that the “Dogs against Romney” online campaign was hilarious, and very effective. I don’t know if it affected any votes, but it’s a great early example of political memes.
https://apnews.com/article/e6765ba4131145f89dc1b64c15533b9c
A young dog, bred to have some prey instincts, attempted to bite an enraged woman who interrupted the dog's feeding frenzy--completely understandable from the dog's point of view.
I believe her that the dog was a wash-out as a hunting dog. I don't believe that there was no chance to re-home her instead of dragging the poor thing out to a pit and shooting her to death.
And why use another person's gravel pit---doesn't Noem have her own dedicated killing field?
It's just a goddamned dog.
Hey Dudes and Dudettes! Remember, you savages, all cultures are equal! In Noem's rural culture, America's rural culture, this is expected and responsible behavior. So all of you ragging on her are disrespectful, uncivilized, women hating, intolerant....
City types will recoil in horror, but anyone who knows anything about farming knows this is an every day event. You can't sugar-coat it, it's just reality.
She took responsibility. The people criticising her are exactly the people who would shrug responsibility off onto someone else.
Black Dogs LIves Matter grift incoming.
@Quaestor: I am an upland game hunter, have two upland game dogs, one a pup who I am training, and one 7 year old. I trained them myself and they are not the perfect hunting dogs, but they are amazing in the field and amazing in my home, which is what 99.9% of upland game hunters seek in their dogs. That bond between dog and hunter is magic and even when I am out on a morning slog with them, watching their noses work is like watching really good actors perform. The energy, the commitment, the athleticism is spectacular. And my older dog has had run-ins with chickens, my pup thinks Robins are pheasants but that is part of the work we do with the dogs. It is the nature of getting a bird dog. You are right, those of us who are rural and who hunt are probably even more appalled at what she did. She had at least three options if she "hated" the pup: re-home, hire a more qualified trainer, or return to the breeder. There are phenomenal upland game bird dog trainers, all of them more than likely well known to Noem and many of them close to her in SD, MT, MN. All of them are familiar with the "behavior issues" she writes about. If her breeder had a good contact, she was obligated to return the pup to the breeder. Maybe the breeder will sue Noem. Speaks a lot of the temperament of Noem: abusive, reactionary, and belligerent. Not characteristics that should be associated with owning bird dogs or elected office.
"Why would have been better to have the dog killed by a vet or a pound?
Is there any moral difference between doing it oneself and paying someone else to do it?"
It doesn't bother me that she did it, it bothers me that she thought she could use it to enhance her political message. Bad instincts, she has no future. What is she going to F up next.
She should have taken the dog to a vet and explained the problem, and asked the vet to do what she thought best, and then keep her mouth shut.
Better yet, go to the Univ of South Dakota Vet Dept. and have a committee of academic Vets research the issue and come to a consensus on a solution, and allow the opinion of the majority to rule. No way she could be dissed in the NYT for that!
then I've taken them to the vet to have them put down.
Whenever we've had to put down our pets, we have the vet come to our house. Costs a bit more, but much less stressful for our animals. It also saves us the horrible drive home.
“Chicken killing dogs that snap at their owners cannot survive on a farm.”
Especially if it’s other people’s chickens. I’ve seen this in person twice. Chicken-killing dogs go away, one way or another. That is, or was, an unwritten rural rule.
Aggressive inbred dogs are a danger to us humans. She did the responsible albeit old-fashioned farm folk action - put down the damn dog before it mauls someone. You go girl.
Maybe it was a Jewish dog and no one will care.
If she had the political instincts of a newt, Noem would have left this episode out of the book entirely. If somehow compelled to include it (by whom?), she should have written something along the lines of "the dog had to be put down."
Yes, she did the right thing. A dog that attacks livestock is a liability to a farmer. She had a responsibility to put the dog down. Yes, a vet would have charged a lot more than the cost of a rifle bullet. Rural people get all that. City folks, not so much.
It's a little more personal for me, because one of my best friends in high school had parents who delighted in how vicious their German shepherd was. When any of us came over to his house, the dog would show all the signs of wanting to attack us until the mother or father or Gary managed to get it locked away in the basement. My mother eventually became friendly with Gary's mother, and one day she came over for a visit. Gary's mother was in the basement doing laundry, and the dog was with her. When he heard someone come to the door the dog charged for the stairs. Gary's mother put out an arm to restrain him, but the dog totally forgot itself and mauled her arm. She didn't die, of course, but she was pretty bloody and I was told that as soon as the dog realized what it had done it slunk off whimpering into a corner. It wasn't the dog's fault that Gary's folks had never trained it or taught it to obey verbal commands. But all of a sudden having a vicious dog was not funny anymore and they did put it down.
Sad story when you have to kill your own pet. Marco is wondering if she cried at having to take the nameless dog's life? I would never trust Marco around chickens or cats because he has never proven he can be trusted with them. He was attacked by a 120# Rhodesian Ridgeback. I always carry a pistol and decided not to pop a cap into the bad dog in a family filled neighborhood . Took a while to pull the killer dog off of Marco who weighed in at 80#. Cost 900$ to sew Marco back up. Ridgeback didn't get hurt. Tough decision to know when to pull the trigger. I made the right choice based on my situation. Time will tell in her case.
For God's sake don't let her become Joe's VP.
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