Kristi Noem and the politics of puppy killing
Revelations in Republican's upcoming memoir may have doomed her political career

"American voters have never been more polarised," said John Hendrickson in The Atlantic, but there's one thing they still all agree on: shooting puppies is wrong.
That much is clear from the outraged reaction to Kristi Noem's new political memoir. In "No Going Back", the governor of South Dakota – and would-be Trump running mate – recounts how she disposed of a rambunctious puppy named Cricket.
She describes how the "untrainable" 14-month-old wirehaired pointer ran wild on a pheasant shoot, and attacked a neighbour's chickens. "I hated that dog," Noem writes, before detailing how she led Cricket to a gravel pit on her family farm and shot it dead. "It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done." For good measure, she then shot a family goat that was "nasty and mean".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Performative 'machismo'?
Noem likely thought that this account of gutsy gunplay would burnish her conservative credentials, said Robin Abcarian in the Los Angeles Times, and you can see why she might have got that impression.
In recent years, a series of ambitious Republican women have sought to "prove their machismo". It started with former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, the self-styled "mama grizzly", who endorsed the controversial practice of shooting wolves from helicopters to cull numbers.
Then there was Joni Ernst, who boasted in her senate campaign of her experience in castrating pigs. In a 2022 campaign ad, Marjorie Taylor Greene blew up a Toyota Prius with a .50-calibre sniper rifle to show how she would "blow away the Democrats' socialist agenda". By directing this "performative cruelty" at pets, however, Noem crossed a line.
Trump team 'bewildered'
Ultimately, US voters prefer dogs to politicians, said Peder Schaefer on Politico. Mistreating them is a no-no. Lyndon B. Johnson received serious flak after he held up one of his beagles by the ears, and the former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has never lived down the revelation during the 2012 campaign that he used to transport his dog in a crate on the roof of the car on holidays.
Noem may well have doomed her political career. Trump campaign insiders are "bewildered" by the story and claim that Noem has no chance of being his vice-presidential candidate now, said Diana Glebova in the New York Post.
Trump "isn't a dog person", said a source, but he "understands that you can't choose a puppy killer" as a running mate.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - March 30, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - strawberry fields forever, secret files, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 hilariously sparse cartoons about further DOGE cuts
Cartoons Artists take on free audits, report cards, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Following the Tea Horse Road in China
The Week Recommends This network of roads and trails served as vital trading routes
By The Week UK Published
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?
In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
By The Week Staff Published
-
The EPA: Let’s forget about climate change
Feature You’ll miss the EPA when it’s been gutted, said former EPA heads
By The Week US Published
-
Schumer: Did he betray the Democrats?
Feature 'Schumer had only bad political options'
By The Week US Published
-
Trump's TPS takedown
Feature The president plans to deport a million immigrants with protected status. What effects will that have?
By The Week US Published
-
Is this the end of democracy in Turkey?
Today's Big Question President Erdoğan's jailing of political rival a 'decisive moment' that moves country toward full-fledged autocracy
By Elliott Goat, The Week UK Published
-
Musk: Is Trump putting him on a leash?
Feature Elon Musk’s aggressive government cuts are facing backlash from Trump’s Cabinet
By The Week US Published
-
SCOTUS: A glimmer of independence?
Feature The Supreme Court rejects Trump’s request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid payments
By The Week US Published
-
DOGE: Wielding a hatchet at the VA
Feature The Trump administration has cut thousands of Veteran Affairs jobs and is considering eliminating 80,000 more
By The Week US Published