Dear Friends,
Photo taken by Miriam Kashia at the rally outside the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, May 4, 2024.
(01:49) The conversation people avoid about Kristi Noem killing her dog;
(21:13) Warren Buffet’s clean-power hypocrisy, with Miriam Kashia;
(39:48) Another CO2 pipeline rupture, as global heating continues;
(55:20) May garden Q & A, with Kathy Byrnes Fallon.
Before we discuss politicians shooting dogs, I wanna call your attention to my conversation with Miriam Kashia about efforts to pressure Warren Buffet to retire six Iowa coal-fired power plants. Not only are the plants exacerbating climate change, but the George Neal Station North plant on the Missouri River, just south of Sioux City, is sickening and killing Native residents of the Winnebago and Omaha reservations.
Twenty years ago, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem shot her dog, citing various reasons in her book, No Going Back. The dog ruined a pheasant hunt. It tried to bite Noem and may have tried to bite others. It was untrainable. It killed a neighbor’s chickens.
Photo I took of Kristi Noem in Des Moines in 2021 before I asked her about climate change and the use of eminent domain to build pipelines. She gave unsatisfactory answers to both questions.
Only the last explanation makes any sense. First, I’ll quickly run through the others.
Ruined a pheasant hunt? Really? What were you expecting from an untrained dog? A responsible dog owner/hunter doesn’t kill a dog because it fails once.
Noem claims the dog tried to bite her. I guess it’s Noem’s word against the dog’s. Noem further claims the dog may have tried to bite others. All kinds of speculation going on there.
Noem also claims the dog — Cricket, a wirehaired pointer — was untrainable. Cricket was 14 months old when Noem dispatched it. According to Gun Dog Journal, “Due to their naturally strong will, this breed benefits from an experienced trainer; they need firmness and consistency throughout their training to be shown who holds the authority. Wirehaired pointers don’t reach full maturity until around 2 years of age.”
When it comes to trainability, it sounds like Noem was the problem, not the dog.
Which brings us to the dead chickens. Farm and ranch families comprise less than 2% of the US population, so most Americans might not be familiar with the rural expression “take the dog for a ride.” That’s a euphemism for “we got a bad dog and we gotta put it down.”
Common law dating back to the 1800s supports a farmer’s right to kill a dog to protect livestock. Additional state statutes allow farmers and ranchers to shoot dogs that are chasing, harassing, or attacking their livestock. That’s as it should be.
Yet the national media have pounced on Noem, some even calling her a monster. The truth is, if you’ve got a dangerous dog, especially one that has killed livestock, the responsible thing to do is to get rid of it.
Now, perhaps Noem should have taken Cricket to a shelter. It might have been adopted by someone with the skills and patience to train it. More likely, it would have been euthanized.
Bottom line: If a dog kills livestock, shooting it is an appropriate and legally defensible response.
Maybe you disagree. Let me offer a few comparisons.
Your broccoli is being eaten by lopers. You sprinkle diatomaceous earth on the plants. Lopers die. Broccoli lives.
Aphids infest your lettuce. You spray the plants with neem oil with no concern about the “stop aphid slaughter” movement.
Mice are dining — and crapping — in your cupboards. You set traps. Mice die. You eat.
But if the pest taking out your food source is a dog, given humans’ deep and understandable attachment to a mostly lovable species, many people have a different reaction.
The problem of dogs killing livestock is not unique to farm country. A couple years back in our urban neighborhood, an irresponsible dog owner repeatedly let his two huskies run loose. Over time, the dogs killed eleven chickens. While shooting the dogs is out of the question in an urban setting, the owner certainly deserved to be held accountable.
Since none of our chickens were among the dead, I’m not privy to the details of the settlement. Personally, I’m partial to the penalty imposed by Judge Judy, who fined a dog owner $100 for each chicken killed.
Back to Noem. I’m not sure why she would include details about shooting her dog (and also shooting a “smelly” goat) in her book. If she hoped it would highlight her ability to make tough decisions as she jockeyed to be Donald Trump’s VP, it has had the opposite effect.
To quote an anonymous Trump ally, “Trump isn’t a dog person necessarily, but I think he understands that you can’t choose a puppy killer as your VP pick, for blatantly obvious reasons.”
Good point. And come November, I hope Americans understand that you can’t pick a lying, tax-cheating, women-assaulting, morally bankrupt tyrant like Trump to be president.
Thanks for reading, listening, and doing your part for a better world.
Ed Fallon
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Ed Fallon