South Dakota Governor Defends Killing Her Dog

Kristi Noem on Sunday took to Donald Trump's social network to defend the controversial story about killing a dog that she reveals in her upcoming book. "Whether running the ranch or in politics, I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle. Even if it's hard and painful. I followed the law and was being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor," the South Dakota governor said in a statement on Truth Social cited by Politico. She says state law allows for the killing of dogs who attack or kill livestock, and reiterates that, as she says in her book, the dog, which she was trying to train as a working dog on her ranch, had been aggressive and thus had to be put down.

"Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did," she writes. "As I explained in the book, it wasn't easy. But often the easy way isn't the right way." Fox News reports that Democrats and Republicans alike were taken aback by Noem's story, with one "popular conservative X account" posting on the social network that as "a country boy who lives on a ranch ... There's a huge difference between putting an old horse down who is suffering, than shooting a 18 month dog for being untrainable." (More Kristi Noem stories.)