You’ve probably heard the quote, “Never trust anyone who isn’t kind to animals.” Some people attribute it to Oscar Wilde, but through my research, I don’t know if he actually said it. Writer Anthony Douglas Williams did say, “How one treats other animals often reflects how one treats other humans.”
Recently, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem came under fire in her upcoming memoir about having to shoot a 14-month-old wire-haired pointer puppy called Cricket. She’s trying to defend it saying that she had to put down three horses that had her family had for 25 years. Yes, if you humanely have to euthanize animals when they’re very sick or deathly ill, it’s the right thing to do. But you can do more than just give it a gunshot to the face. She also reportedly dragged a goat to a gravel pit and shot it more than once dead. She said it head-butted her children.
That’s because goats can be aggressive. Maybe she ought to have kept her kids away. And one thing most dog owners should realize from the start – puppies are often rambunctious. They love to run and jump and play. They love to chew things, a lot. People want puppies, they just don’t want the responsibilities of taking care of them. It means getting up in the middle of the night to let them out to go to the bathroom if you keep them inside. If you sleep with a puppy in your bed, it’s very likely they’re going to mess the bed.
A puppy is just like a human baby. It’s still learning thing. Even if it stays outside, it will get into a lot of things. It needs to know the difference between right and wrong. I use to give my dogs treats for going out to do their business. They got a Beggin’ bacon strip in the morning and at night because they usually dropped a deuce. When my ex’s daughter had a Grand Pyrenees, he mistook the Splenda bag for a Beggin’ strip so when I went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, I turned around and saw him flashing his canine smile at me. He wanted a Beggin’ strip. They are smart and they can learn. It just takes time and a lot of patience.
If Noem didn’t want the dog, all she had to do was make a post online. I’m sure a lot of people would’ve taken in Cricket. People defending Noem saying that it’s a way of life on the farm and ranch, let me clarify that is not necessarily the case. A lot of farmers/ranchers keep dogs around but they are smart enough to know how to train and treat them. They just don’t shoot dogs. Many actually love their dogs.
When I was at Georgia Southern University, I was listening to Tim Metcalf, who has since passed away, as he was talking about his days as a stuntman. He had once worked for the Florida Highway Patrol I believe. He got out because one of the duties he had to perform was to stop a wild dog from snatching a severed hand at an accident. Metcalf said he had to shoot the dog and listening to him recall this, he was almost in tears. He loved dogs. But he had to do it.
Metcalf knew it wasn’t the animals’ fault. It was hungry and it was in its nature to hunt and scavenge. It’s a shame someone didn’t feed the dog or take care of it that it had to be left to the wild. But that’s what happens to animals like cats and dogs, they are often left to fend for themselves when people leave them. It’s cruel because they’re domesticated they get accustomed to certain things.
As I’ve gotten older, the number of older men who have become catdaddies is amazing. My father never did like cats…until one showed up at his house about 15 years ago. They named it “Tiger” and it was a part of their family for years. But one day, Tiger went outside and never came back. My dad and stepmother got another cat too that they think may have been shot. But she is a tabby and friendly.
I’m of the belief that you should Adopt Not Shop. My late girlfriend for her first dog through an adoption. Before her death, she had adopted two kittens and had them. I’ve gotten all my pets mostly through taking them in. One day, a dog or cat will show up and I feed it. I can’t let it starve.
We’ve seen the post of the man recovering from surgery who finds a cat coming into the house to comfort him. We’ve seen the post of the older man showing a kitty pics of his family. One of my college friends didn’t want a dog but his family did. Now that dog is his best buddy. Animals have a way of making us feel better.
A lot of people use them for emotional support. It’s not exactly dogs or cats. Sometimes, it’s ferrets. Sometimes it’s birds. I remember I was at the Sequoyah State Park near my home and a woman was walking with a red Macaw bird perched on her shoulder like it was so comfortable. One of the fun news stories I covered was when the principal and counselor of an elementary school had to kiss a pig that was a pet of a young woman in FFA. Everyone loved the story. You can’t not smile at people kissing pigs in front of elementary school kids.
I wonder why Noem would mention something like this. There has been rumors for a while that she had angrily shot a dog. My question is, why would you openly divulge this unless forced to? Noem is on a shortlist of possible running mates for Donald Trump. Did she think this might make her tougher with the hardcore Republican MAGA base? If so, what does that say about the Republican Party and Trump supporters?
Or maybe it was to curry more favor with Trump, who has been the first U.S. President in a long time not to have a dog while in the White House. Melania Trump has said he isn’t a dog person and was hostile to her poodle as it would bark at him. And we all remember that video of him with an eagle. Animals know who we really are. Some people just aren’t dog-friendly or even pet-friendly. It says a lot of his personality. Was Noem hoping Trump might get excited about her shooting her own dog because she wanted to impress him?
There are an estimated 65 millions households (not individual people, but households) who have at least one dog and a Pew Research Center study reported that 97 person of people consider their pets as a member of the family. I’m sure many of those 65 million households may support Trump. But are they likely to if Noem becomes his running mate?
She has tried to defend her actions by saying South Dakota law states that dogs that attack or bite livestock can be put down. But what is an aggressive bite and what is a surprise bite, by a dog having its paw or tail accidentally stepped on? Or did they train the dog to be a herder and it got too scared by the livestock around them?
A lot of animals (include snakes, spiders and bees) won’t attack unless they are very threatened, provoked or frightened. And a lot of male animals become aggressive when it’s time to mate. It’s just in their nature. The same can be said for a mama bear if you get around her cubs. Regardless of how Noem seems to justify it, she apparently is trying to appeal to what she considers the base of Trumpism, which is country and rural people. (Yet, most Trump supporters are very metropolitan.) And if so, what does that say what she thinks about her voters, that they’re all a bunch of gun-toting vicious hicks?
This woman wants to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency. Do people really want her? The same people who support Trump may not support her. And let’s be honest, with his health, they’re basically voting for the vice-president candidate. Noem seems to have that same ideology of a parent who throws a child in the deep end of the pool to force them to learn to swim. The problem is some people can’t learn to swim. And some dogs can’t be trained to do what people want.
Yet would you justify letting your child drown the same way she has about Cricket?
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 