People are up in arms about South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s story in her new book that has not been released yet (and, therefore, nobody in the public sphere could have read it first hand and are only hearing one media company’s description) where she discusses shooting her dog humanely (meaning the dog did not suffer after) to euthanize it after it attacked chickens and bit her. South Dakota, like Colorado, has Vicious Dog Laws that make the keeping or possessing of a vicious dog a Class 2 Misdemeanor, with fines of up to $1000, and the allowance of Animal Control to seize the dog and destroy it.
Alas, there are no exceptions within vicious dog laws for puppies or first attacks. There is nothing excusing an owner of the misdemeanor based on the age of the dog, or due to lack of training. There are no second chances within the ordinances, either. Once a dog has attacked any other animal or has even acted aggressively towards a person, while the owner is aware of it, the owner is committing a crime.
The Vicious Dog laws across the country also make an owner civilly liable if the dog attacks someone else’s property or person, such as chickens, livestock, or a family member. As a matter of fact, the laws often carve out an exception that the owner of said property that is being trespassed by an aggressive dog is allowed to kill the dog themselves if it attacks property or person.
But people are conveniently ignoring these laws when attacking Kristi Noem for putting her dog down humanely through a gunshot wound. While the story shows Gov. Noem as angry and having negative personal feelings about the dog (see: not in the best light), it also fails to discuss that she was actually doing something completely legal and even possibly necessary to prevent criminal charges and/or civil liability.
Yes, she could have given the dog up to animal control, or contacted an animal behaviorist. No, she could not place a knowingly vicious dog up for adoption or given it to a private organization that is knowingly putting their employees in danger of a vicious attack. The law requires giving the animal up to animal control. Organizations are allowed to take in animals that have non-aggressive behavioral problems, but also become liable if a vicious attack to an employee happens.
Animal control then requires that their pound or contractor for shelter wait only 5 more days to put the dog down.
As an example, The Humane Society, by comparison to Kristi Noem’s singular dog, puts down approximately 390,000 dogs every year. Most of these dogs are not vicious, The Society simply do not have the funds to keep dogs sheltered in perpetuity until they find their forever homes. Instead of mass media condemning the Humane Society, they actually support them in receiving millions of dollars in donations every year, the time period in which they euthanize almost a million animals (cats included) through overdose.
Even organizations for the ethical treatment of animals euthanize in the thousands every single year. PETA, for example, euthanizes 78% of all animals in its care.
So I guess as long as you pretend you care about animals, these organizations are allowed to kill hundreds of thousands of animals in their care, vicious or not, puppy or not and people will not be outraged.
But if you are a potential Vice Presidential candidate, the media — who wants to amplify dividing political discourse and get people to watch and read their articles — says you are awful and can not follow the law about vicious dogs without people calling you a murderer, even if those very same people are donating to organizations who are daily euthanizing animals to the tune of over 1000 a day.
But that is the viciousness of American politics today, where 50 years ago this story would not have even made headlines, as most people humanely euthanized their animals through gunshot instead of spending well over $100 to watch them overdose on sedatives (I had to do this suddenly with my precious four year old red bone coonhound after feeding her Blue Buffalo one time and she had sudden acute kidney failure almost immediately. Blue Buffalo had a class action lawsuit dismissed just days before in 2018 that alleged their food was killing dogs because it was poisoned with lead. Blue Buffalo stated these claims were unsubstantiated, yet did not countersue for the lies that affected their business).
Now our political discourse is focused on actions from 20 years ago, instead of the actions of politicians today, such as moneylaundering cases and using the courts for political trials, or a ten year “security strategy” for Ukraine that puts us in the position of funding a perpetual war, or even the out of control budgetary process that is putting the nation trillions of dollars into debt, but I imagine the hatred of political enemies gets more views. Maybe if we focused on current events, people would stop feigning disgust when a political rival does something the same organizations they donate to do on a regular basis.
But probably not.
Because that is the viciousness of today’s political climate, filled with emotional outbursts, lies, deceit (including self-deceit), and media directed anger.
It should also be noted I love dogs, but strongly dislike the clear hypocrisy in American Politics today.
Rachel Suh lives in Pagosa Springs, and is a Certified SCRUM Master and Strategic Consultant working in facilitation, mentoring, training, and coaching. She has a passionate hobby of Political Activism.