The Killing of a Puppy
...Cricket’s Revenge
In case you missed THE political news story of the week, check out the original reporting by the Guardian magazine regarding a forthcoming memoir by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, where she writes about killing her 14-month-old puppy.
Click: Guardian Noem Memoir
I dated a guy in college who grew up on a farm in southern Illinois—El Paso, Illinois, to be precise. The first time I visited his family, I was enveloped in a different world, stereotypical but wonderful in countless ways.
The house is what I think of whenever I read something about farm life. It was surrounded by acres and acres of flat land, with no nearby neighbors.
His mom and ‘sis’ would prepare a noon meal, almost like the Gold Buffet restaurant offered in Winterset. Plates of pass-it-and-take-as-much-as-you-want food circulated two or three times. I imagine much of what was served came from the backyard garden before it reached the table.
After the meal, it was time for the ‘men folk’ to return to work.
I loved them all: his mom, Norma, dad, Dallas, older brother, Chip, and sister, Diane.
On one visit, I discovered a baby raccoon whose fate would have been death had I, a city kid, not come along. My guy, John, explained that raccoons could devastate a corn crop, and the varmint had to be dispatched.
I insisted we take the baby, whom we named Rocky (of course), back to college. Dallas grinned at the idea, but as long as it was off the farm, he was ok with the outcome. The local grocer was kind enough to regularly give us produce that would have been thrown out to give to Rocky. For weeks, the nocturnal animal grew and grew and grew, and my fantasy of having a playful, dog-like animal in the apartment over the town square was not to be. I also understood, eventually, that raccoons are not meant to be domesticated, and thus was my first lesson learned about the reality of farm life.
Rocky became snarly as he matured, and it was clear he yearned to be rid of this hippie nonsense. We called the local animal control officer, who released Rocky in the woods. That’s what I was told, anyway. I do not know how Rocky did without the daily helpings of browning cabbage, wormy corn, and rotting apples. Unlike the need for self-reliance in the wild, he could waddle up to his food without effort.
This preamble acknowledges that I am a city kid, as are many talking heads. Still, I also understand that life on a farm is more complicated than I once thought, and my horrified reaction to Noem’s confession of shooting her puppy in the face needed to be checked out.
When the story came to light, thanks to The Guardian, via an excerpt from the forthcoming memoir of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, where she wrote that she killed a 14-month-old puppy by the name of Cricket, this tidbit from the book has dominated social conversations this week. The pup’s ‘crime’ was that she hadn’t yet turned into the hunting dog she was supposed to be; plus, when the unleashed pup hopped out of the Noem truck during a visit with a neighbor, she destroyed some chickens. Perhaps because Cricket didn’t understand the nuance between hanging out with older dogs and humans, hunting pheasants wasn’t the same as hunting chickens.
This was the excuse the politician used to shoot the puppy in the head.
Noem must have calculated that the memoir, particularly that incident, would add to her contrived narrative as a leader willing to make tough calls and boost her chances of being picked as the GOP VP candidate. In response, other Veepstakers, even Ron DeSantis, have posted pictures of themselves with their dogs this week.
Twitter [X] is abuzz with dog photos. Noem is taking a lot of bi-partisan incoming shame, even from GOP partisans who are otherwise mum when folks are mowed down by assault rifles while attending school, synagogues, concerts, shopping malls, and churches.
Wanting to make sure I wasn’t oversimplifying this puppy murder story and falling into an urban/rural divide trap, I reached out to a few folks who have farming backgrounds to see if any of them thought the shooting of Cricket was justified.
The first call was to my college friend, the farm boy who became a psychologist and poet and now splits his time between a Chicago suburb and Florida. His name is Dr. John Schuler, and he has remained a constant friend all these years. I hope he completes writing some of the books he’s working on because I’ll be eager to share his work with you. Not only is he a farm boy at heart, but he is also a ‘spiritual being having a human experience.’ He’s a Taurus and a slow-talking storyteller. The ‘Taurus’ thing made much more sense as a descriptor when I was 19, but I digress.
John said that life on a farm is more complicated than one might think. A raccoon loose in a field of corn could ruin a farmer's slim margin. A runt in a litter of pigs could end up costing more than it is eventually worth, and pigs aren’t named Wilber; they are a commodity raised for human consumption. Their life can spell the difference between losing money or making money— and nursing a runt could make the difference, so a slap upside the head with a fence post might be in order. Most of us grew up reading ‘Charlotte’s Web’ while having bacon and eggs for breakfast, oblivious to any connection.
But shooting ‘man’s best friend’ is a different story and a gross miscalculation by Noem. A 14-month-old pup is in adolescence, testing boundaries, and needs training and retraining. Not a bullet to the head. We have a 9-month-old puppy and have often said raising him is a lot more work than we remembered, but who could shoot this guy in the head??
So, what does a farm boy have to say?
''Noem’s declaration that tough decisions have to be made on a farm is not wrong, especially if it is a marginally profitable operation where options for euthanasia are limited, and calling a vet for services can affect what groceries you can buy that month,” said John.
Cricket deserved a better owner, he said. The governor could have re-homed her if she didn’t have the time to train or be responsible for the pup. She took a now popular, conservative grandstanding practice of linking herself with guns and being ‘tough.’
“The optics of today's image-making,” he added.
Cheryl Tevis
I also checked in with
member , who spent a long career working for Succesful Farming magazine and lives on a farm in Boone County. Her reaction:“I was shocked to read that Kristi Noem shot a 14-month-old pointer. She expected the dog to help on pheasant hunts, but this dog was ‘less than worthless,’ she said. Farm dogs are typically expected to help out, whether herding the livestock or guarding the property.
“I grew up on a farm and have been married to a farmer for most of my life, and we never would have considered shooting our dog if it didn’t perform well. Our dogs live outside, but they’re also our beloved pets.
“Apparently, Noem’s dog killed chickens on a visit to someone else’s farm. Dogs sometimes do kill chickens and even kill cats. In this case, it’s a canine instinct in these dogs that goes too deep to change.
“It’s true that on the farm, we do live our days near life —and death. We call a vet in the middle of the night to help deliver a calf and save the cow's life. Yet we take livestock to market. But, although our farm dogs serve a useful purpose, we love them – despite their failings – and mourn their loss from natural causes.
Bottom Line
Let’s be sure Governor Kristi Noem doesn’t spin this into a story about a gun-toting woman who’s just working the land versus us howling snowflake, woke libs.
Noem has managed to harness the unthinkable: Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly agree: Cricket deserved to live.
Your life was short, Cricket, but you’ve managed to unite the country. Rest in Power.
What do you think?
Mary Swander’s Ag Arts Mission
member has an extraordinary nonprofit where she matches artists with farmers, offering lodging for those who crave uninterrupted time to create. At the same time, artists connect with and become inspired by local farming communities. The purpose is to provide an opportunity for artists to learn about agricultural issues through on-farm experiences and that their work will reflect this knowledge. Farmers, in return, will enjoy hosting creative people on their homesteads, and both will learn from one another. Check it out: AgArts
The Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat is still accepting registrations for the September 22-25 event. Don’t miss out! If you need a scholarship to attend, let me know. Thanks to paid subscribers of this column, a few partial scholarships remain.
I’m grateful for being a founding member of
. Check out our newest columnist, who was added this week. has a delightful column about hunting for morel mushrooms.
The first movie I ever saw was Old Yeller. I get teary eyed to this day, as I recall that terrible scene where Yeller, infected with rabies from protecting his boy from infected wild boars, is put out of his misery with a shot- gun. It was a terrible ordeal for the boy who had to “ man-up” to send the dog to his maker.
Ms. Noem’s version of using her gun on her dog was, IMHO, proof of her incapacity to tell right from wrong; making her a danger to herself and society. Gun ownership is unfortunately, too often allowed to people like herself, leading to mass shootings and death by GSW (gun shot wound).
Instead of proving her ‘toughness’ by including this tale in her book, she has inadvertently shown yet one more case in point for the need of tough gun legislation. Why she is not, at the very least, tried for animal cruelty, is my immediate reaction. She certainly has made a name for herself as a cruel, demented, poor excuse for a human being. It may not be an impeachable offense, but the South Dakotans I know will never be giving her another term as governor.
First, about the raccoon. I lived off campus at Iowa State and one of the other roomers brought his pet raccoon to the house. It reared its back and hissed at anyone who came near and one night got loose in the common kitchen. All the cereal boxes were torn apart and contents strewn about, but more damaging was his tearing up the plastic cushions on the chairs and spreading the stuffing about. The raccoon went back to his home for a future unknown.
For Gov. Noem to publish a story of her killing a dog and a goat astonishes me as a political act. A standard political joke is that "the candidate might as well say he likes to drop kick puppies." She has just proudly proclaimed to have killed one. Granted, there is a history of farmers shooting dogs that kill chickens or "runs sheep." There was, and perhaps still is, a belief that putting down such a dog is the duty of a good farm neighbor. It was a widespread belief that a dog that tasted chicken or sheep blood could not be trained out of the impulse to repeat the act. It also comes from a time when there were fewer options. But now there are options such as animal shelters and such. But even in the days when a farmer might feel a duty to put down a chicken or sheep killer, it was done with regret and sorrow. We see none of that in Gov. Noem's account.