Politics is usually a game of calculated leaks and polished images. But every so often, a public figure drops a story so raw—and honestly, so jarring—that it stops the news cycle dead. That's exactly what happened when the world found out Kristi Noem kills dog in a gravel pit.
It wasn't a leaked video or a whistleblower. It was her own book.
In her memoir, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, the South Dakota Governor laid out a story that she seemingly thought would prove her "toughness." Instead, it sparked a firestorm that bridged the deepest political divides in the country. People who agree on nothing else suddenly found common ground in their reaction to a 14-month-old puppy named Cricket.
The Day at the Gravel Pit: Why Kristi Noem Kills Dog
The story centers on a wirehaired pointer named Cricket. At 14 months old, Cricket was essentially an adolescent—full of energy, probably a bit scatterbrained, and according to Noem, "untrainable."
Noem had high hopes for the dog as a pheasant hunter. She took her out with older, more experienced dogs, hoping the pup would learn the ropes. It didn't go well. Cricket was "out of her mind with excitement," chasing birds and basically ruining the hunt for everyone involved. On the way home, things went from bad to worse. Noem stopped at a neighbor's house, and Cricket escaped the truck, attacking and killing several of the neighbor's chickens.
When Noem tried to grab her, she says the dog "whipped around to bite me."
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That was the breaking point. Noem didn't see a dog that needed a trainer or a different home. She saw a "less than worthless" animal. She led the dog to a gravel pit and shot her.
It Wasn't Just the Dog
One of the weirder details that often gets buried is that the gravel pit wasn't just for Cricket that day. After the dog was dead, Noem realized she had another "unpleasant job" to do. She had a male goat that she described as "nasty and mean." It smelled bad, and it liked to chase her kids.
She dragged the goat down to the same pit.
The first shot didn't kill him. She had to walk back to her truck, get more ammunition, and come back to finish the job. It’s a grisly sequence of events that most people can’t imagine doing, let alone writing about in a book meant to help a vice-presidential bid.
Why Put it in a Book?
You've probably wondered what the strategy was here. Noem has repeatedly defended the story, claiming it shows she doesn't shy away from "difficult, messy, and ugly" decisions. In her mind, this was a "farm life" reality.
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She’s doubled down on this on social media, mentioning that her family recently had to put down three horses that had been with them for 25 years. The message she’s trying to send is clear: I am a leader who makes the hard calls.
But there’s a massive gulf between humanely euthanizing a 25-year-old horse and shooting a 14-month-old puppy for being a bad hunter and killing chickens. Most rural folks and farmers were actually some of her loudest critics. They pointed out that a dog killing chickens is a training failure, not a death sentence.
The Political Fallout
Before this story broke, Noem was a frontrunner to be Donald Trump’s running mate. After? Not so much.
The backlash was instant and bipartisan.
- Democrats called it "disturbing and horrifying."
- Republicans like Newt Gingrich said it basically ended her VP chances.
- Animal Rights Groups pointed out that there were dozens of rescues that would have taken a high-energy hunting dog in a heartbeat.
There’s also the "Kim Jong Un" factor. Around the same time the dog story went viral, people noticed another part of her book where she claimed to have met the North Korean dictator—a claim her team later had to walk back as an "error." The two stories combined created an image of a candidate who was, at best, making some very strange choices about what to include in her life story.
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What Most People Get Wrong About the Story
A lot of the online chatter frames this as something that happened yesterday. It didn't. This happened about 20 years ago. Noem argues that because the story had been a "rumor" in South Dakota politics for years, she wanted to "tell the truth" herself.
However, her former political opponents in South Dakota have come out and said they’d never even heard the story before the book. This suggests it wasn't a "pre-emptive strike" against a known scandal, but a deliberate choice to include the anecdote as a character study.
She even took a swing at Joe Biden's dog, Commander, suggesting that if she were in the White House, Commander should "say hello to Cricket." It’s a level of "tough talk" that didn't land the way she expected.
Lessons for Content and Reputation
If there’s any takeaway from the Kristi Noem kills dog controversy, it’s about understanding your audience. Noem thought her audience was "tough-minded" rural voters who value utility over sentiment. She forgot that America is a nation of dog lovers.
According to data from the American Pet Products Association, about 65 million U.S. households own a dog. To those people, a dog isn't just a "working animal"—it's a family member.
Actionable Insights for the Curious
If you find yourself in a situation where a pet is displaying "untrainable" or aggressive behavior, there are steps to take before reaching a "point of no return":
- Consult a Behaviorist: Not just a trainer, but a certified veterinary behaviorist who can diagnose if the aggression is fear-based or something else.
- Breed-Specific Rescues: If a hunting dog like a Pointer isn't working out in a home, there are organizations specifically dedicated to rehoming those breeds with people who understand their drive.
- Livestock Protection: There are specific training tools and fencing strategies to keep dogs away from chickens. It's a common issue that is almost always solvable.
The story of Cricket remains a bizarre footnote in American political history. It serves as a reminder that "authenticity" in politics is a double-edged sword. Sometimes, the truth doesn't set you free—it just leaves everyone wondering why you did it in the first place.