Kristi Noem defends killing her own puppy

jeffw@lemmy.worldmod to News@lemmy.world – 523 points –
Kristi Noem defends killing her own puppy
motherjones.com
161

She killed a puppy for acting like a puppy and scaring birds during a hunt. It was 14 months old and sounds like it had zero training. So she takes it to a gravel pit and shoots it. A puppy. For being excited by birds. And it wasn't trained how to behave around birds.

And then she writes on Twitter that her autobiography has more stories that will upset the press. She is actually psychotic.

Animal cruelty. Why isn't she charged?

Is that even a thing? In the u.s they treat dogs as property

Well they treat people like the property of corporations and the ruling class, so at least they're consistent.

I live in the US. I treat my dogs as family.

Do you "crate" them when you are away from home or sleeping? That American practice has always horrified me.

I've certainly never needed or wanted to crate a dog, my dogs sleep in bed with me every night. Some dogs are destructively anxious when alone and need it unfortunately. I only know one person who does crate their dog (their dog is like I described above), and they hate that they need to. It's not as common as you think in my experience at least.

I'll admit I wasn't aware that was an American-only thing though.

I am also in the U.S. and I do treat my dogs as family and I do not crate them. However, the person you are replying to does not treat their dog as family. They think they do, but they don't. They told a story on another thread on this governor about their own dog (which I initially misread) which included this part:

I thought about having the vet put him to “sleep” but I didn’t like that either. He didn’t deserve to be injected with strange drugs in a strange place by strangers. I chose to take him home, give him a rather large dose of xanax and smother him with my hand while telling him what an amazing boy he was.

https://lemmy.world/comment/9683664

That doesn't sound like treating them as family to me.

Edit: Forgot the "not" up there. Kind of important.

Apart from anything else, vets will come to your house for stuff like that. I’m going to tell myself that story is bollocks. We don’t deserve dogs.

What the fuck.... Not only is this animal cruelty but it also shows the incredibly fucked up view that person has on what "family" means.

Yes, very much not all Americans are "bad" and it's dumb to generalise like that, but man are they good at proving stereotypes and being completely ignorant of it. Both via the Internet and having known some Americans in real life, most of the time it doesn't take long to discover how shitty they are.

There are definitely some very shitty pet owners around. There's a dog we walk ours by that is out all day on a wire lead whether its family is home or not and it's constantly pulling on it and jumping around because it's clearly full of energy that it can't expend. I doubt it's enough to call the humane society and have them do anything about it unfortunately.

Our two dogs are very well-loved. They sleep on the bed with us, get the food our vet recommends (a brand called Taste of the Wild) and we have a dog door so they can run around their big yard. I've had four dogs in my life and I'd like to think I've treated all of them as well as, if not more than, I could be expected to reasonably do so.

I sure as fuck would never smother one of them any more than I'd smother a relative dying of cancer.

My dogs have always been crate trained. Its not like they are in there all day. They ride in a crate in the car for their safety. They can go lay in it whenever they want. Some do, some don't.

Really? FYI, a dogs crate is where they feel safest when their humans are gone. It's one thing if you crate them 24/7 but otherwise, no, it's not a bad thing. Do some research before you jump into this debate choom, or you're gonna get demolished.

Edit: and, for the record, my dogs both sleep with me. Only crated when me or my partner are both not home

yes, it’s true, tons of books say it’s ok. my folks raised dogs, i’ve had a number of dogs myself. never crated them. until dogs can be interviewed, im team “lets don’t lock them up for hours all alone.” just because humans write books saying this and that doesn’t make it true. dr spock wrote books saying it was bad to hold babies when they cried. it’s not. science used to be near uninamous that animals and insects didn’t have emotions. then it was “emotions like we do.” now…it’s turning out they do. research isn’t the be-all and end-all.

Why would a dog feel safe being locked into a cage compared to being free to roam the house and find a comfy spot?

Literally never heard of anyone doing that here, it would even be illegal.

I would imagine that if you've never heard of anybody doing that where you live, it's a culture thing. Certain places have different practices on how they handle dogs. I want to stress though, much of the US doesn't just do it because it's simple and easy without any regard to the animal (at least not any good dog owners). To you, it may look like a prison, but to a dog properly crate trained, it's more like a safe and comfy bed they can relax in. The positive effects crating can have on a dog is heavily backed by science, and I'd recommend looking into it, it's actually kinda fascinating.

Of course, that all assumes it's being done properly. Crates are a tool, and like any tool, they can be misused and abused. So it's not always where they feel safest, it all depends on how you train them and certain issues a dog might have (claustrophobia, heavy anxiety, etc.). Generally, from what I understand, you never want to associate the crate with negative emotions or consequences (i.e. don't send your dog to the crate as punishment). It's supposed to be a safe place, not a jail cell.

This shows you have a fundamental ignorance of this subject matter. It's not American practice, for starters, and it's certainly not cruel if you're doing it right.

It depends on where you are. There are states and cities in the US that take animal cruelty very seriously.

I think I understand what you're saying here. Legally speaking, dogs are property here.

This said, obviously most Americans do not treat their dogs as such.

Our dogs are our family, choom. Don't mix it up like that, our country is already full of shitty things, but not that. This story is about a piece of human garbage who never should have gotten a puppy to begin with, but that's not ALL of us.

No, don't use your emotions, I simply stated a fact. In the u.s if I kill your dog, I am liable for property damages. That's all the law sees your dogs as, that's all police see your dogs as.

Putting down a dog without a good reason isn't animal cruelty most places if you put it down humanely.

This weird and gross and downright disturbing, but it isn't animal cruelty unless she shot it in the stomach to watch it bleed out or something. Which honestly, she may have for all we know, she's obviously unhinged or very, very dumb.

Killing an animal because you don't want it is animal cruelty. Maybe not legally but the laws rarely follow public morality.

If animals are in excess there are shelters and they have better ways than a gunshot in a gravel pit.

I'd still call it cruelty, especially the fact that she claimed she led it to the gravel pit. She called the puppy over and shot it.

Sounds like she did it a favour

🤮

In that she spared it from a life of under an abusive owner? I literally have no idea wtf you’re trying to say and I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt

Did I miss something? That was a shitty example to back up her angle that the dog was untrainable or whatever. The real "reason" was the puppy killed a bunch of the neighbor's chickens. That is a fact, as in order of events. The motivation could be many other things, such as: not wanting the bad PR, trying to smooth things over with a neighbor, legitimate guilt/empathy/something for the neighbor losing their chickens as some families may be really attached to their chickens either emotionally and/or financially.

etc wow I don't mind saying something that is unpopular but I very much do mind people thinking I'm defending animal cruelty or that I find it anything less than awful and heartless. I was questioning specifically what the comment said about killing a puppy FOR being a puppy. When I said the motivation could have been anything else, I meant she could have killed the puppy for any of those awful reasons too but I did not understand how killing chickens = being a puppy, which someone did kindly answer for me. Clearly I expressed myself very poorly.

The puppy was being trained for hunting. Meaning she killed her for doing exactly what she was being trained to do. Of course she wouldn't know there are some animals she shouldn't chase.

Oh, and this is not a one-off thing from Noem either. She also mentions shooting and killing a male goat for "chasing her kids".

In any case, I worry when someone's solution to completely fixable issues with other living beings is to just kill them.

Usually bird dogs aren't killing anything. They retrieve the fowl after its been shot and they are trained to be gentle with the bird in their mouth. But that doesn't excuse the shit stains behavior.

Ok duh, thank you! I wasn't sure what I missed that makes this a puppy being killed for being a puppy so thank you for actually pointing out what I was missing. I couldn't really make the connection to how it was a puppy specific thing, not defending it.

The thing is she wasn't sad to have to do it. She said she "hated" the puppy.

Yeah im really sorry, I was not in any way shape or form anywhere near that woman's side but that was not clear. Thank you for being decent to me despite what your impression may have been.

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When I was young I used to live in rural town and had a puppy that was tough to train. I found the puppy a new home with someone that had the time to train it. I didn’t shoot the dog and blame it on living in a rural county.

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Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: all the signs of a psychopath

That will be her unique selling point for republican voters

I find it scary, but you're right. Acting decently with respect for those around you is no longer what it takes to win votes. Instead, you should kill puppies, not give a fuck about killing puppies, and deny that you ever did that, despite the actual proof that you did it. Then you'll get all the votes. Because... amerikah

Buy a bird dog.
WTF, this dog is OBSESSED with birds.
Let dog run loose.
Dog catches birds.
Bird dog is happy for catching birds.
UNACCEPTABLE!
Shoot dog.

Nobody understands, this dog was a maniac around birds!

“I took my dog hunting and it killed a chicken instead of the bird I wanted it to kill, so I shot my dog” is one hell of a take, eh?

I agree with you on everything else. But bird dogs aren't for killing birds. They locate and/or retrieve.

Hmm did I train the dog wrong?

No the dog is bad better murder it instead of rehoming it.

Totally unnecessary.

I get that social media seems to be a constant stream of outrage with nobody actually caring, but I think this story might actually derail her.

There are articles in Fox News, NY Post, and other conservative media outlets about this. They are fairly critical. The fox news one includes tweets from a "country boy" who is like "there's a difference between taking an old animal out back and a fucking puppy".

Best case scenario, she didn’t train the dog well… that’s not a great reason to murder it

People are crazy.

I saw the movie 'Enter The Dragon' in theaters dozens of times back when grind houses were a thing. Every time some thug got killed the crowd cheered. The minute the villain threatened to kill his own cat people were horrified.

people don’t like thugs. thugs are dangerous and bad for society. so social creatures like humans naturally cheer them getting creamed. baby animals that are pets? hint: one thing isn’t a different thing. context. it’s what gives meaning.

Humans are sapient, while some other animals can claim the same title as well most cant. Humans can be introspective but most animals fundamentally cannot, there are lots of good reason to kill a human animals should only be killed for food or necessity.

i think so too. killing a puppy is pretty generally reviled here. and rightly so.

She also had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago. Wonder what they did, eat too much hay? Whinney too much in excitement? Perhaps they were just untrainable as well... Things that don't serve a purpose must die. Ah, that's leadership.

She was training them to speak like Mr. Ed but they wouldn't utter a word regardless of how much peanut butter she fed them therefore they had to go.

She posted that she "...just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago".

Again as a person who grew up in the country around livestock, WTF is she doing that she had to put down multiple horses? Maybe she should really reconsider any form of animal husbandry because they sure as fuck sound like completely incompetent ranchers.

Yeah horses don’t die that frequently and that close together. To shoot two in one week, too shoot them! Instead of vet euthanization. Wild.

You have to get the whole horse bloodline. If you leave any alive you'll be spending the rest of your life in fear everytime you hear hoof steps behind you.

I recall a story where my grampa had to do that to a cow. But that was ages ago out in the country where there were no vets and no other better means or knowledge.

Maybe she just can't stop at killing just a single horse.

Once you pop, you can't stop.

Kristi Noem is a dog murdering psycho cunt. I wish her a lifetime of UTIs, hangnails, yeast infections, and congested sinuses.

Edit: added UTIs

Bitch you could have re-homed the dog to someone who actually knows what the fuck they’re doing.

Kristi Noem is a certified piece of shit and shame on whichever Dakota voted her in.

Wow, fuck this person. What an unhinged thing to admit to in your own fucking book. Who thought that would be a good idea?

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She had to put down three horses in one week?

Unless there's some sort of horse pandemic I'm unaware of, that sounds even worse.

She thinks that the public is mad that animals die on a farm. No, she is not grasping the fact that she killed animals unnecessarily and pointlessly.

Wait what?? Is this a book about her history of torturing and killing animals? Is she coming out as a serial killer?

The focusing on the puppy and not the “she liked it so much that she went and killed a goat slowly” is odd

Wait what?

She shot the dog, which obviously felt really good to her because she immediately found a goat to kill afterwards, only this one took multiple bullets.

Did the goat bite the governor?

No, they just didn't bother to neuter it so it was 'musky' and needed to die

Where the fuck is John Wick when you need him ...

Is there any meaningful difference between her, Lauren Boebert, and Sara Palin?

Michelle Bachman thanks you for forgetting her and her life partner Marcus...

I fully memory holed her.

I had the displeasure of unholing her from my brain a couple of days ago. I don’t even remember what I was watching, I just glanced at her face and a frigid chill suddenly came over me. It was a displeasing feeling.

There’s crazy and then there’s “murder dogs” crazy

I wouldn’t suggest Boebert isn’t “murder puppies” crazy.

I respectfully disagree. I think she’s much more “sex in front of children” crazy than “murder puppies” crazy.

I'm not saying she is 'murder puppies' crazy... just that I wouldn't be taking any bets against it.

either way, neither of them should be allowed anywhere civilized society, never mind governance.

I thought this was an Onion article, and a far stretched one at that. Jesus fucking Christ.

Sometimes you need to offer people rope to hang themselves, sometimes you need to offer people shovels to dig their own grave.

…She must own her own hardware store

A very disgusting thing to say.

It's not the saying part that bothers me

Patton Oswalt told me "I think the worst part of the Cosby thing was the hypocrisy." And I disagree. I thought it was the raping. - Norm MacDonald.

Thank you. So many people excuse rape, victim blame, and don't see it as a "bad crime."

She is another performative politician. Don't give her clicks

Somehow I don’t think reading a Mother Jones article counts as giving her any clicks

We are talking about her, aren't we? The media is continuously giving these performative rightwingers free advertising.

I wouldn’t call educating people about how terrible she is “free advertising”. If you ignore this shit, they’ll keep electing her

Noted. That is of course why Clinton won in 2016.

All publicity is good publicity.

No.

Reporting “Trump wants to deport millions of people” is considered a bad story by many but actually viewed as a good thing by plenty of Americans, which is why the “negative” press coverage was to Trump’s benefit as free media for his message.

You won’t find anyone viewing Noem euthanizing puppies and goats as a positive.

i think the bs the dnc pulled on bernie may have played a role…

"It's coming right at us!"

I mean, how can you expect to be the orange man's VP if you can't kill a defenseless puppy? /s

Fuck you, psychopath. My animals love me because I love them and would never let anyone hurt them. Wtf

Hunting dogs used for hunting aren't generally part of a farm operation, and hunting dog puppies aren't expected to behave at full performance, either. It's hard to pull much from the horse statement itself, but in this context it isn't helpful and looks really bad.

You know generally I'm against the death penalty and I'm all up and down threads like these advocating for that not to be the case, because, you know, people get raised in certain environments, we can't really know whether or not someone's really committed a crime sometimes, blanket death penalty is bad, yadda yadda ya. You know, consistency in principles.

but fuck me man this lady needs to be crushed by a big rock or something

I am anti death penalty but pro big rock crushing

this isn’t shows how futile it is to try to shame such people into being halfway decent. it’s not possible.

Sounds like an ideal running mate for Trump.

Dare I say, this might make her too weird even for Trump. As much of a wretched excuse for a human being as Trump is, and despite the fact that he’s a known dog hater, he’s at least aware enough of public perception to know that puppy murder = bad.

When I was barely a teenager our neighbor’s dog came into our property and killed/ate all of our chickens.

We later learned that they ended up shooting the dog. The “common sense” regarding this was that once dogs get a taste for chicken they will never stop coming back to get more.

I don’t know if that’s true and in our situation it wasn’t a puppy but this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of a dog being killed for eating chickens.

Couldn't they just have, I don't know, kept the dog on a fucking leash like the rest of civilized society?

We lived in the sticks with 10’s of acres of land per family.

They could have. But I don’t know anyone who did except for those who lived in town.

Ah yes so the responsible thing to do is to kill the puppy instead of taking walkies.

I don’t know if that’s true

I'm like 90% sure it's not, it's just one of those things that people do as a kind of "common sense" solution, because dogs are generally seen as a pretty disposable object. Like how they used to kill, and maybe still do kill idk, any animal that kills or attacks a person, just kind of on the basis that "that there animal is a man killer. ain't no goin' back from that, it's got a taste for it now.". Just dumb shit.

They killed the dog because they were pissed about the chickens and the dogs life is worth less than the time spent to train it properly.

They probably just got a new dog and rolled the dice that this one wouldn't like chicken as much.

Not responsible pet owners.

What sets this ladies story apart is that she killed the dog and then looked around for what else she could kill. Because she liked the feeling it gave her.

The "common sense" is you control your fucking dog. If you have to kill it to do so, you're a failure as a pet owner and as a person.

Is this the woman who also killed that bear for sport?

No surprise there - she's a crass opportunist with no principles and no empathy; what else is she going to do?

It's likely that she isn't even dissembling - that she's sincerely defending her actions because she's so psychologically crippled that she genuinely can't see how anyone could legitimately take exception to them.

This has nothing to do with animals, and the incidents probably never even happened.

She is advocating for the return of concentration camps and gas chambers.

Remember when Mit Romney drove around for vacation with the dog on the car's roof storage bin?

By comparison Mit wins this round...I mean time count vs bullet count.

But a line must be drawn somewhere, and that somewhere is revealing that you killed your 14-month-old wirehair pointer for acting like a puppy.

Appeal to emotion, Mother Jones. And not a very good one. Do better.

Way to hold them to a higher standard! /s

Don't you have some Democrats to be criticizing?

Puppy: a young domestic dog; specifically : one less than a year old

Where did you find that info? Everywhere I‘m looking it says it becomes mature „between the ages of 1 - 2“, either when their bones have fully developed, they've reached their final size or with sexual maturity.

Many breeds do not mature until they are close to 3 years old.