South Dakota
South Dakota Animal Rescue: Sorry Kristi Noem, There Are No ‘Untrainable’ Dogs
An animal shelter in South Dakota is rebuffing the idea that there’s such a thing as an “untrainable” dog as Republican Gov. Kristi Noem defends a years-old decision to shoot her 14-month-old puppy over its poor behavior.
The governor was widely viewed as a frontrunner in Donald Trump’s vice presidential sweepstakes—until Friday, when The Guardian published excerpts from her forthcoming biography, including grisly details about killing animals on her farm, including the puppy, a female wirehaired pointer named Cricket.
In her book, Noem reportedly writes that Cricket was “untrainable,” “aggressive,” and “less than worthless” as a hunting dog. She recalls dragging Cricket to a gravel pit and shooting her in front of a stricken construction crew after becoming fed up with the dog, who had ruined a hunting trip, killed chickens, and bit her.
Paws Animal Rescue, a shelter based in the capital city of Pierre, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that it had been “flooded with messages” regarding Noem’s anecdote. Though it declined to comment on the governor’s situation, the rescue said its team felt compelled to say something about “untrainable dogs” more generally.
“We haven’t met one yet,” the shelter said. “In all our years in animal rescue and the thousands of animals that have come through our door, we have yet to meet a dog that was so untrainable it deserved to be shot to death.”
The organization said that its volunteer-run team had encountered all kinds of dogs exhibiting problematic behavior, and in every instance worked to “teach them manners” and find them the right homes.
“Is euthanasia sometimes necessary? In certain situations, yes,” the rescue said. “When an animal is so sick that [its] quality of life is inhumane, then humane euthanasia may be the answer. When an animal has been so badly damaged by people or circumstances that it has demons it cannot overcome, sometimes maybe then too.
“When a 14-month-old puppy (who was almost certainly bought from a breeder at 8 weeks and had every opportunity to be taught the right way to behave), absolutely not,” it added.
After it was made public, Noem’s anecdote about Cricket sparked outrage and widespread criticism online, with users questioning why she hadn’t returned the dog to its breeder or surrendered it to a shelter. The Guardian, which obtained a copy of Noem’s book, did not specify if she names Cricket’s breeder in it, and their identity remained unclear on Sunday. But there are more than 60 animal shelters and welfare organizations in South Dakota, according to nonprofit tracker Cause IQ.
Paws Animal Rescue did not immediately return a request for further comment on Sunday night. Their post included a link for donations that would be set aside “specifically for the training and rehabilitation of dogs that come into our care that are ‘untrainable.’”
Noem, 52, on Sunday doubled down on the decision to kill Cricket. Though she said she understood why “some people” might have been “upset” by the anecdote, the governor tweeted that she was “being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor.”
She continued, “The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.”
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The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 12, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 12 drawing
12-21-39-46-48, Bonus: 02
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
RAAPID CITY, S.D. — Incarcerated women will start moving into a new $87 million prison in Rapid City next month, a South Dakota Department of Corrections spokesperson confirmed this week.
The medium-security prison will be the state’s second for women. The South Dakota Women’s Prison in Pierre has operated beyond its capacity for years, with dozens of people serving their sentences at the Hughes County Jail or in halfway house facilities.
The new prison in Rapid City, which was approved by state lawmakers
in 2023
, will add 288 beds to the state’s capacity. The Department of Corrections will begin transferring women there next month, according to spokesperson Michael Winder, who said the exact date of full operations won’t be released for security reasons
The prison includes a work release area, a mother-infant building that lets new moms stay in a home-like environment with their babies, a vocational training facility to be staffed by instructors from Western Dakota Technical Institute and 96 beds for chemical dependency treatment.
The majority of the women held in South Dakota prisons are incarcerated on nonviolent drug charges, and 97% have a substance use disorder diagnosis.
“Drug addiction is a disease that must be treated,” Corrections Secretary Nick Lamb said at Friday’s ribbon cutting, adding that “Through dedicated treatment space and the therapeutic community, women will receive the counseling support and skills that they need to break the cycle of addiction and successfully return to their families and communities.”
The mother-infant program
mirrors one launched a few years ago in Pierre
.
Mothers who qualify under security guidelines stay in a group home separate from the main prison facility with other women and children for the first few years of their child’s life. The program was launched by former Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko and was championed by Lamb in his first public conversations with lawmakers on the state’s budget committee during the 2026 legislative session.
Photo courtesy Gov. Larry Rhoden’s office
At Friday’s event, Gov. Larry Rhoden said family connections and parenting skills are key factors in rehabilitation. He framed the program as an extension of a commitment to the well-being of South Dakota families.
“This program gives mothers and their children the opportunity to build that foundation from the very beginning,” Rhoden said.
Rhoden also called out the vocational training, drug treatment and work release programs as vital to rehabilitation — and to public safety by extension. The state recently broke ground on a new $650 million men’s prison in Sioux Falls, which is set to replace the state penitentiary and is also designed to expand programming and rehabilitation.
When combined with pending policy recommendations from the state’s correctional rehabilitation task force, Rhoden said, the new prisons will help improve public safety statewide by reducing the number of people who return to prison within a few years of their release.
“At the end of the day, every person in our corrections system is a human being,” Rhoden said. “They are sons and daughters. They are mothers and fathers. People who’ve made mistakes but also have the capacity to change.”
Winder, the corrections spokesman, told South Dakota Searchlight that staff will spend the next few weeks training at the new facility in preparation for the arrival of inmates in August.
The state hired Eric Aldridge
to serve as warden in March
. Aldridge, who came to South Dakota after a stint as warden of a medium-security women’s prison in Troy, Virginia, said Friday his goal is to “to facilitate an environment, an atmosphere, a culture where people learn, they grow, they heal, and where people develop through dignity and respect.”
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