A defiant South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem hit back at critics following outrage over her upcoming memoir that reveals she once killed a dog.
“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old (sic) story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back. The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned,” the Republican wrote in a social media post that was published on X on Sunday.
“The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did,” Noem continued.
Outrage spread across social media platforms late last week after The Guardian reported on an excerpt from Noem’s upcoming memoir “No Going Back,” which is set to be released on May 7.
In the excerpt, Noem described taking her 14-month-old female dog, Cricket, to a “gravel pit” near her farm and shooting her because it was “less than worthless.”
She also called the pup “untrainable” and had killed and eaten several chickens.
