Kristi Noem’s defense of the killing of her dog Cricket allegedly morphs from « danger to livestock » to « threat to her kids. »
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has been hit by a community note on X, formerly Twitter, after her reasons for killing her dog, Cricket, allegedly « morphed » from « livestock threat » to « danger to her children ».
Noem, who has been tipped as a potential 2024 running mate for Donald Trump, describes shooting the farm dog dead in her forthcoming book No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.
Community notes are written by X users and attached to a tweet if there is enough support for them from others on the platform. In this case, the note picks up on the lack of any mention that the dog had put her children at risk in a short excerpt from her book published by The Guardian.
After publication of the extract, in which Noem also describes killing a goat for being smelly and chasing her children, she defends her actions in a tweet, saying: « We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. »
But the episode has sparked a backlash, including from some Republicans, and resulted in a sharp fall in the bookies’ odds on Noem being chosen as Trump’s prospective vice president.
On Thursday Noem again defended her actions on X commenting: « Don’t believe the #fakenews media’s twisted spin. I had a choice between the safety of my children and an animal who had a history of attacking people & killing livestock.
