Shameless puppy killer Kristi Noem couldn’t be bothered to feign her support for animal cruelty prevention.
The homeland security secretary, 54, was notably absent from an animal welfare roundtable attended by a slew of Trump officials on Wednesday.
Noem—who has doubled down on her lack of remorse over killing her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket—did not join her fellow Cabinet officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in their puppy PR performance.
Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins shared photos from the event on X, with the DHS Secretary nowhere to be found.
“Grateful to join @AGPamBondi, @SecKennedy, @LaraLeaTrump, and other leaders to focus on preventing animal cruelty at today’s Animal Welfare Roundtable @TheJusticeDept,“ she wrote. ”We are strengthening enforcement and advancing real, coordinated action across the federal government.”
Rollins added that the USDA would be hosting an adoption event for rescue dogs later in the day.
“Protecting animals means showing up, and today we’re doing just that!” she said.
Noem’s absence shows they have already made headway in their efforts to protect animals.
Noem, who is often called ICE Barbie for her love of cosplay, wrote about shooting and killing her young puppy in her 2024 book, No Going Back. Noem recounts how Cricket—whom she “hated”— had killed a neighbor’s chickens, interrupted a pheasant shoot, and attempted to bite her.
She also wrote about how she killed a goat she considered “aggressive” and buried it in the same gravel pit as her dead dog.
Noem tried to justify both the killing and its inclusion in her book last year when pressed about it by CNN’s Dana Bash.
“That story is a 20-year-old story of a mom who made a very difficult decision to protect her children from a vicious animal that was attacking livestock and killing livestock and attacking people,” Noem said.
“So it’s in the book because it was difficult for me,” she added, “and there’s a lot in that book that I think people need to read.”
“People are put in tough situations in life, and we learn from it,” Noem said. “We learn a lot from it.”
The Daily Beast reached out to Noem and the USDA for comment.
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