Kristi Noem blamed shooting her dog on the realities of rural life. Experts say that doesn't add up.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Monica Potts

For most of my life, I've owned an endless parade of dogs and cats. At various times, I've had aquariums full of fish, two rabbits, a guinea pig, and at least a dozen hamsters. For about a decade, my family had a rescue cockatiel named Alfred. I grew up in rural Arkansas, and between extended family, friends and neighbors, I encountered many more critters: horses, cows, pigs, pet goats, chickens kept for eggs, a donkey who brayed too long into the night and two ostriches who regularly escaped their corral.

Because it's part of life, I'm also no stranger to sad stories about animals. We outlive our family pets, and I've buried many. The livestock dotting the landscape I grew up in were destined for the slaughterhouse, and that sometimes included even the beloved cows and pigs that the Future Farmers of America students raised for the county fair. Almost as often, a dog or cat would escape and wander too far from home only to meet its end on a busy country highway. The animal shelter in my town euthanized animals to make space until it was taken over by a nonprofit. More rarely, I'd hear of people threatening to shoot, or actually shooting, stray dogs, which later contributed to the many conflicts posted about regularly in local Facebook groups.

So when South Dakota Gov. and potential Trump VP pick Kristi Noem shared a story in her new book about shooting her 14-month-old dog named Cricket, and later defended it as one of the tough decisions she'd had to make as a rancher — a regrettable but necessary part of country life — did that sound normal to me?

While Noem is right that country life can be different from city life for dogs (and goats), I still didn't find her story typical. And the information I've found and the reporting I've done shows I'm not alone. More than that, how Americans view and take care of companion animals has changed a great deal in the 20 years since Cricket's brief life unfolded, which might explain why the backlash to Noem's story has been so widespread.

https://abcnews.go.com/538/kristi-noem-blamed-shooting-dog-realities-rural-life/story

[shrike3]

1. I remember a local farmer shooting his dog after it killed some of our sheep.

But that was forty-plus years ago. Much has changed.

[whopis01]

2. I'm surprised she didn't blame it on Biden. n/t

[Dear_Prudence]

3. Old Yeller

Old Yeller is a sad story because everyone loved the dog, but it had to be put down due to being exposed to rabies. Kristi Noem told a disturbing story because she hated the puppy and put it down using the puppy's misbehavior as an excuse. Then she botched the goat shooting, resulting in the animal's unnecessary suffering, for which she expresses no regret. On a farm or in a lab, killing animals is required, but so is compassion and enough competence to kill the animal as humanely as possible. And when a hunter takes down an elk for meat, they would express shame if they admitted they couldn't shoot straight and the animal suffered. Noem is a brutal, heartless, vengeful killer and any decent sheep dog would raise its hackles if she were to approach a flock.

[BWdem4life]

4. bad link, try this one

https://abcnews.go.com/538/kristi-noem-blamed-shooting-dog-realities-rural-life/story?id=110027836

[shrike3]

5. More from above link:

Herzog shared a story about how that issue had once affected him and his pet Labrador, Molly. "Molly came home one day, and she was limping," he said. When his wife mentioned it to his neighbor after running into her at the store, the neighbor told Herzog's wife that Molly had gotten into their chickens again and her husband had shot the dog. "She said, 'He just peppered her.' Molly turned out to be okay — we took her to the vet. I didn't blame him. My dog was invading his property and getting after his chickens … That was my fault."

Therein lies a big difference with Noem's story and my own experience. It is true that dogs are sometimes dangerous to other animals and, more rarely, people. That's why many cities and municipalities have ordinances that require dogs to be contained or on leashes. In the book, Noem says she'd gotten Cricket from a family who "struggled with her aggressive personality." She describes Cricket ruining a pheasant hunt with her exuberance and lack of training, and then taking Cricket home loose in the back of the truck because she didn't have enough kennels. It was during a stop on the way home that Cricket chased after and killed another family's chickens. It raises a question, then, why a dog that was untrained, had a reputation for being aggressive and who'd already failed to obey commands was allowed to ride loose?

"Cricket was bred and raised for pheasant hunting. Cricket was a bird dog. Cricket was punished by death for exhibiting natural behavior that's cultivated through breeding and through socialization for bird dogs," says Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund. She said she also grew up in rural Minnesota and Wisconsin, which has influenced her thinking about the event as it has mine. It's the human's job, she said, to know when and how to manage dogs, especially those of certain breeds or with a high prey drive, around other animals.

Training dogs is a long, involved process that requires significant human commitment, and some methods are better than others. Most experts now agree that positive reinforcement training is best, and aversive methods, like the electric collar Noem described using on Cricket in her book, have negative side effects and are not effective. Hunting dog and breed experts who weighed in said Cricket's breed is often physically immature and not fully trained to hunt for up to five years; Cricket was just 14 months old.