South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — a potential running mate for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump — is getting attention again.

The Guardian obtained a copy of Noem’s soon-to-be released book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.” In it, she tells the story of the ill-fated Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer she was training for pheasant hunting.

On the way home from the hunting trip, Noem writes that she stopped to talk to a family. Cricket got out of Noem’s truck and attacked and killed some of the family’s chickens, then bit the governor.

“At that moment,” Noem writes, “I realized I had to put her down.” She led Cricket to a gravel pit and killed her.

She writes, according to the Guardian, that the tale was included to show her willingness to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” if it has to be done. But backlash was swift against the Republican governor, who just a month ago drew attention and criticism for posting an infomercial-like video about cosmetic dental surgery she received out-of-state.

  • TheRealKuniEnglish
    6•8 months ago

    I think you’re thinking of Game of Thrones and the Unsullied. 😂

    (In all seriousness I know this is an urban legend told about many different military organizations around the world. I don’t know if there’s any truth to it.)

      • @[email protected]
        3•8 months ago

        The linked interview has one(!) offhand comment by Abram de Swaan about the alleged practise. The interview is in part to promote his book “The Killing Compartments: The Mentality of Mass Murder.” which of course features Nazi Germany quite a bit. So I went ahead and downloaded said book. The words ‘dog’, ‘puppy’ ,or ‘pet’ are mentioned zero times in the entirety of the book.

        Trying to find the book and more sources for the allegation I came up with nothing else.

        While “SS-Troops” (idiotic generalisation in this case) like the SS-Totenkopfverbände did many fucked up thinks and would be fucked up enough to feature the alleged dog killings in their training - there is so far no proof whatsoever.

        If this were the case it would be in every other movie about WW2. It’s in Kingsmen FFS, where the good guys do this as part of their training.

        Sorry, I have to call BS on this one.