Noem Shot Her 14-Month-Old Puppy, Then a Goat, Then Lied About Meeting Kim Jong Un — Got DHS Anyway
In her memoir, Noem described shooting her puppy Cricket in a gravel pit because it was "untrainable," then dragging a goat to the same pit and needing two shots to kill it. The same book falsely claimed she met Kim Jong Un. Her VP odds crashed — but Trump made her DHS Secretary.
In her 2024 memoir No Going Back, Kristi Noem described killing her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer Cricket after the dog chased birds uncontrollably during a hunt and attacked a neighbor's chickens.
Noem wrote: "I hated that dog." She described Cricket as having "an aggressive personality" and being "untrainable." She led the puppy to a gravel pit and shot it.
Then she went back for the family goat:
- She described the goat as "nasty and mean" with a "disgusting, musky, rancid" smell
- She dragged it to the same gravel pit, tied it to a post, and shot — but missed the kill shot
- She walked back to the truck for another shell, returned, and killed the goat on the second attempt
- A construction crew working nearby witnessed both killings
The same memoir also claimed she had met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un: "I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un." No public record of any such meeting exists. Her spokesman called it "an error" and the publisher removed the passage.
Noem framed the killings as evidence she could make "difficult, messy and ugly" decisions. Her VP odds on Polymarket crashed from 10% to 3%. Trump told donors: "I'm really curious about the dog." He chose JD Vance instead.
Trump then appointed Noem as DHS Secretary anyway — the agency responsible for, among other things, enforcing animal cruelty laws. She was fired 13 months later over the Lewandowski corruption scandal.