A fundraiser featuring South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was canceled after organizers received death threats over the killing of her puppies.
Noem wrote in her upcoming memoir that she shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy named Cricket in her family’s gravel pit after it killed chickens.
Her admission created a firestorm that likely torpedoed her chances of being Donald Trump’s running mate and caused other Republicans to mock her.
Noem was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the Republicans’ annual fundraiser in Jefferson County, Colorado, but it was canceled over security fears.
A fundraiser featuring South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was canceled after organizers received death threats over the murder of her puppy.
Jefferson County Republican Party Chairwoman Nancy Pallozzi said her group, Noem, her staff and the venue received “numerous threats and/or death threats.”
“After a conversation with the governor’s office Wednesday night, we mutually decided that safety was the most important concern for everyone involved,” he said.
“The Denver West Marriott also received alarming feedback and shared with us its deep concern for the safety of our event attendees, other guests and its staff.”
Pallozzi said canceling the event was “not taking a position on public outcry over the governor’s book,” but simply taking safety into account.
He said Noem “has and continues to stand up for our constitutional rights, our freedom and less government, which is the platform of the Republican Party.”
The organization will refund everyone who purchased the expensive tickets to the event and will take care of thousands of dollars in costs that it will not be able to recover.
The controversy, which has irritated and angered even her fellow conservatives on social media, forced her to Noem to do damage control.
She complained that the outrage was “fake news” caused by “the media,” prompting another wave of criticism from readers who highlighted that the press was only reporting Noem’s own published words.
“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20-year-old story about Cricket, one of the working dogs on our ranch,” he wrote on Twitter.
‘The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs that attack and kill livestock can be euthanized. Since Cricket had shown aggressive behavior towards people by biting them, I decided what he did.
Noem takes a photo with another dog she had, Hazel, a Vizsla
‘As I explained in the book, it wasn’t easy. But often the easy way is not the right one.
Noem later told Fox News that Cricket ‘slaughtered’ a neighbor’s cattle the day he was killed.
“She came to us from a family that considered her too aggressive,” he said.
The book, titled No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, will be published on May 7.
In it, Noem wrote about the wire-haired pointer she shot in the gravel pit on her family’s property, moments before her children returned from school.
He stated that Cricket had an “aggressive personality” that could not be tamed, as evidenced by the fact that she ruined a pheasant hunt by being “crazy with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life.”
Additionally, when the governor of South Dakota took Cricket with her to meet a local family, the dog began killing the family’s chickens like “a trained killer.”
According to an excerpt from a book obtained by the guardianCricket “grabbed one chicken at a time, crushed it to death in one bite, and then dropped it to attack another.”
As former President Donald Trump contemplates who should become his vice president, Noem has written a new book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, which will be published on May 7.
When Noem finally grabbed the dog, she wrote that Cricket “turned around to bite me.”
Cricket was “the picture of pure joy.” Meanwhile, the owner of the chickens was crying.
Noem wrote that she wrote a check “for the price they asked for and helped them get rid of the bodies covering the crime scene.”
“I hated that dog,” Noem wrote, believing the 14-month-old dog was “untamable,” “dangerous to anyone he came into contact with” and “less than useless…as a hunting dog.”
So he decided to kill Cricket.
“At that time,” the governor wrote. “I realized I had to put her down.”
He shot Cricket in the family’s gravel pit.
“It wasn’t a pleasant job,” Noem said, “but it had to be done.” And when it was over, I realized that there was another unpleasant job to do.
Noem decided to also kill the family goat because it was “nasty and mean,” as it was not neutered and smelled “disgusting, musky (and) rancid” and “loved to chase” the governor’s children.
She also “dragged him into the gravel pit,” but the goat jumped out when she tried to shoot him, briefly leaving him alive.
Noem said she had to go back to her truck and retrieve another projectile and then “rushed back to the gravel pit and left it.”
A Facebook image shows South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem with a gun. In her next book, she writes about Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, who Noem shot in the gravel pit on her family’s property, moments before her children returned from school.
His actions were witnessed, he said, by a construction crew working nearby. Moments later, the bus dropped off their children.
“Kennedy looked around confused,” Noem recalled of her daughter, who asked, “Hey, where’s Cricket?”
Noem later admitted, “I guess if I were a better politician I wouldn’t tell the story here.”
On Friday the Internet was abuzz with reactions to his story.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a harsh critic of Trump who used to be his White House communications director, wrote in X that anyone “who unnecessarily hurts an animal because it is inconvenient needs help.”
‘I’m a dog lover and I’m honestly horrified by Kristi Noem’s excerpt. I wish I hadn’t even read it. A 14 month old dog is still a puppy and can be trained.
“A large part of bad dog behavior is due to the humans responsible for them not training them properly,” Griffin wrote.
