By Elona Baron as Barked to Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO — While watching television news with my human, I heard a shocking story about how South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem killed her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer Cricket for being rambunctious. I am outraged and plan to mobilize dogs from around the country to set up a doghouse encampment to surround her residence. I have chosen this tactic because I’ve been watching other news too.
First, there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. If a human is incapable of training a dog with consistent reinforcement and kindness, then he/she/they should relinquish it to a shelter. I’m reluctant to give this advice because most dogs who end up in shelters don’t get out alive. Nevertheless, those are better odds than the death penalty Noem advocates for dogs and people. My canine protest movement will demand that a veterinarian declaw Noem.
Second, Noem is supposedly pro-life and opposes abortion. She’s a hypocrite. I bet she had Cricket spayed. In an interview Noem told Dana Bash that North Dakota law would require a ten-year old pregnant girl to carry a fetus to term. Apparently, Noem feels differently about a 14- month-old dog having puppies.
Finally, to demonstrate her reverence for life, Noem shot her dog for chasing away pheasants she was hunting. I’m surprised she buried Cricket instead of attaching a beak to her snout and pasting feathers on her corpse to prove to family and friends that she had bagged a bird. After that, she probably would have roasted the deceased Cricket to serve at dinner.
Noem published the story of Cricket to impress MAGA voters and Donald Trump with how tough she is. She’s vying to be his running mate. If he does select her, he’s politically savvy enough to arrange for the National Enquirer to purchase the story and file it in the Stormy Daniels’ folder.
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Elona resides with Bonnie and Laurie Baron. The latter is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted via lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com. No animals were harmed in the writing of this column.
I came across this story on US News channels. My Name is John McCormick. I am a New Zealand sheep and cattle farmer who for all the years I have worked on farms I have a team of working dogs. It is nonsense to compare the story of the dog Cricket to a woman. let me explain. the writer of the item Here clearly has no experience or knowledge of how to handle working dogs. When I left school in 1969 to work on Dad’s farm I had a 2 dog team 3 years Later my team was 4 dogs. The biggest mob of sheep I had to muster and bring into the yards for shearing or drafting was 2500. The biggest mob of cattle I moved was 500 on a high country station was in the south Island . I did those jobs on my own. So I think that shows I know how to train and work dogs.
Everything I have heard Kristi Noam say on radio in New Zealand and US TV news showed her to be a person who knows how to train and work Dogs. She was the second owner of the dog. It was given to her because the first owner could not handle the dog. So Kristi had a problem dog from the start. She did her best, but the dog would not learn . When a dog attacks and animal be that a chicken, sheep, goat, chicken or a tame pig and won’t stop when commanded then that is called worrying. Most rural states in the USA and New Zealand have laws that allow owners of the molested animals to protect them by shooting the attacking dog on site. The obligation is also on the dog owner to take action to protect animals from attack.
I have had one experience of this. I was given a dog by friends living in my home town. The dog was a lean black crossbread who could run like the wind. The townspeople’s property was too small for the dog. He was an intelligent dog watching what was going on around him. I took him with me when working with my dogs but he did not want to learn. He would chase sheep trying to catch them which is not on. One day he got off his chain at lunch time. I found him missing after lunch and went looking for him. 2 hours later I found him up the farm in a paddock of sheep. The mob was in a corner as far away from the dog as they could get. I found the dog eating a live sheep’s back left leg. He had chased the sheep until it collapsed in exhaustion then started eating it. I caught the dog took it back to the kennels, tied it up and went and got my rifle and shoot it dead. That is what I had to do.
So Kristin was right to do what she had to do. She Is an experienced owner and trainer of dogs. Your writer should reconsider her position. I am happy to respond to any comments about what I have written. I am a retired farmer now in my 70’s .