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Seth Meyers blasts Kristi Noem’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ dog killing confession

Seth Meyers called the Donald Trump vice presidential candidate a ‘level of psycho I didn’t even know existed’

Kelly Rissman
Tuesday 30 April 2024 15:47 BST
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Related video: Seth Meyers rips Kristi Noem over her dog shooting story

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Late Night show host Seth Meyers has likened South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem to the character Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs after she confessed to killing her dog in her upcoming book.

Ms Noem — considered to be on Donald Trump’s shortlist for vice president — writes in her forthcoming book “No Going Back” that she shot her dog named Cricket dead because she was “untrainable”.

Cricket was a “wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” the Republican governor writes in the excerpt, obtained byThe Guardian.

“I hated that dog,” she added, detailing that Cricket was “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.

“At that moment,” Ms Noem continued, “I realised I had to put her down.” She conceded that while “it was not a pleasant job... it had to be done”.

Seth Meyers blasting Kristin Noem about ‘bragging’ about killing her dog
Seth Meyers blasting Kristin Noem about ‘bragging’ about killing her dog (NBC / screengrab)

On Monday night’s show, Seth Meyers unleashed his true thoughts about the deadly tale, calling it a “level of psycho I didn’t even know existed”.

“It’s one thing to kill a dog — named Cricket. It’s another to brag about it in a book,” Mr Meyers said.

“She thought telling the story would make her look cool. What’s going on? Does she think cats can vote?” the late night host continued.

“It’s horrible enough to kill a dog, but even crazier to brag about it,” he added. “That’s a level of psycho I didn’t even know existed.”

Mr Meyers then likened her to the Silence Of The Lambs character: “Even Buffalo Bill had the self-awareness to keep his abhorrent behaviour indoors. He didn’t walk around town saying, ‘Hey, check out my new outfit. It’s a skin suit.’”

In the memoir, Ms Noem also brought up her dislike of a goat that her family owned. She remarked that the goat smelled “disgusting, musky, rancid” and was “nasty and mean” since it hadn’t been castrated.

Following a backlash over her confession to fatally shooting Cricket the dog, the vice presidential hopeful defended her past treatment of animals — in a strange way.

She posted on X: “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

In another post, she continued to defend her actions, writing on X: “I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book.”

“The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown some aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did,” she added.

Her book, Ms Noem promises will deliver “more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping,” is due out in May.

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