In shooting her dog, Kristi Noem defied morality — and the Talmud
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Courtesy of Getty Images
By Mira Fox May 3, 2024
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem — who was, until recently, a frontrunner to join Donald Trump’s presidential bid as his running mate — is trying to show voters that she’s not afraid of the “difficult, messy and ugly” parts of politics. To illustrate this, in her forthcoming book, she tells a story: that of shooting her hunting dog, Cricket.
This, as basically anyone could have predicted, did not have the intended impact of showcasing Noem as a bold leader. Instead, even Donald Trump Jr., who has shot many an endangered animal on his hunting trips, criticized the move.
Noem has been on a frantic press circuit to try to put the story to bed, excusing her actions as necessary. She has explained that the 14-month-old dog was “not a puppy,” and that all criticism of her decision to shoot Cricket is “fake news.”
Her reasons for shooting Cricket, according to the book, include that the puppy ruined a pheasant hunt by getting too excited about chasing the birds and that Cricket once tried to bite her. Noem also says that Cricket killed her neighbor’s chickens — something my boyfriend’s puppy once did to his own chickens. (He did not shoot his dog.)
“I hated that dog,” Noem wrote. She also, as it turns out, hated a billy goat that she shot in a gravel pit alongside Cricket. For the goat, her reasons were that it sometimes got her childrens’ clothes dirty and smelled “disgusting, musky, rancid.”
There are many widely-accepted reasons to put down an animal, including illness and, yes, aggression, though the latter is controversial. Naturally-occuring smell and hunting skills are not among them. And usually, killing an animal is accompanied by sadness, not bragging.
Society’s taboo against cruelty to animals goes back to the time of the Talmud. According to the Jewish texts, “unnecessary” cruelty to animals is prohibited — and, in fact, kindness is required. Animals, like people, are prohibited from working on Shabbat, owners are required to feed their animals, whether pets or livestock, before they themselves sit down for Shabbat dinner.
While Noem might litigate whether her actions qualify as “unnecessary” cruelty, the Talmud also states that one should not own an animal unless they can properly care and provide for it.
Noem states in her book that she was Cricket’s second owner — another family had gotten rid of the dog because she was aggressive and hard to control. Noem knew Cricket might be a handful when she adopted the dog, yet she did so anyway, even though she was evidently unprepared to handle it.
Hunting dogs often have strong prey drives, but they require work to control. As is a catchphrase among many dog advocates, there’s no such thing as a bad dog, only bad owners.
Similarly, as someone who has worked on a goat farm, I can confirm that male goats stink; they pee on their beards as part of their mating instinct, to spread their pheromones. But if you want a fresh-smelling pet, it’s your job not to get a billy goat — or probably any goat at all.
Noem doesn’t just need to worry about having broken an ethical code laid down by rabbis hundreds of years ago. She may have also committed a misdemeanor in her home state.
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