A 2025 South Park episode titled ‘Get a Nut’ has put Kristi Noem back in the headlines — and not for policy work. The episode, the second in Season 27, skewers everyone from Donald Trump to immigration officers, but reserves special scorn for Noem, portraying her as a gun-toting dog killer who even shoots Superman’s pet dog, Krypto.
Viewers unfamiliar with Noem’s backstory may have been shocked — but the animated mockery is based on a very real and controversial admission from the former South Dakota governor’s 2024 memoir No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward. In it, she describes in graphic detail how she killed her 14-month-old puppy Cricket — and, later that same day, her family goat.
In her book, Noem recounts taking Cricket pheasant hunting with older dogs in the hope the young pup would learn from them. Instead, she says the dog misbehaved repeatedly, showed aggression, and ultimately escaped from her truck during a pit stop — slaughtering a neighbour’s chickens.
‘[Cricket] grabbed one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another,’ Noem wrote. When she finally caught the dog, she claims Cricket ‘whipped around to bite me’.
The dog, she said, had become a ‘trained assassin’, and she made the decision to shoot it. ‘I realised I had to put her down,’ she wrote. She also claimed to have compensated the distraught family for their lost livestock and helped clean up the scene.
That same day, she also killed the family’s unneutered goat, which she described as ‘filthy’, ‘nasty’, and prone to chasing and knocking down her children. Her uncle and nearby workers reportedly witnessed her actions and were ‘so spooked’ they returned to work in silence, according to her account.
Public backlash was swift — and fierce. Critics accused her of animal cruelty, but Noem remained defiant, insisting she acted as a responsible mother and rancher.
‘It’s not about whether I love dogs. It’s about protecting my kids,’ she told CBS’s Face the Nation. On social media, she doubled down again, posting on X (formerly Twitter):
‘South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down… Whether running the ranch or in politics, I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle. Even if it’s hard and painful.’
She even made light of the incident during the Face the Nation interview, joking: ‘Commander, say hello to Cricket for me,’ referencing President Biden’s German Shepherd who was removed from the White House after a string of biting incidents.
Despite the public fallout, Noem’s political trajectory has only climbed. As of mid-2025, she is no longer Governor of South Dakota — but remains a key political figure. According to CNN, Donald Trump has tapped her as his preferred pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security should he return to office.
Trump insiders say her loyalty and willingness to make tough, even controversial, decisions make her an ideal candidate. ‘Trump values loyalty, and Noem’s consistent alignment with his views makes her an ideal pick,’ a source close to the former president told CNN.
While her defenders view her actions as a necessary part of ranch life, critics say the tone and language in her memoir reflect a disturbing lack of empathy — particularly from someone who aspires to lead one of the most powerful security agencies in the United States.
‘It’s not just what she did, it’s how she wrote about it,’ one viral post on X argued. ‘There’s a difference between hard decisions and relishing cruelty.’
As for South Park, the show’s decision to parody Noem has reignited online debates and reminded Americans that, love her or loathe her, Kristi Noem is far from fading quietly into the background.
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