Kristi Noem criticised over hunting photo as dog appears frightened to commenters

Kristi Noem drew criticism online after posting a photograph of herself pheasant hunting in South Dakota with her dog Foster, wearing camouflage and holding a rifle. Commenters said the dog looked frightened, and the image revived attention to Noem’s account of killing her previous dog, Cricket, in her memoir.

Noem wrote that Cricket was 14 months old and described the dog as aggressive and untrainable after it killed chickens and bit her; she said she shot it in a gravel pit. She later defended the decision as a difficult farm-life choice, but the story was widely criticised and became part of her public image. In her post, she said pheasant hunting was a family tradition and referred to a wildlife habitat programme she launched as South Dakota governor.