I agree with you. The dog story is all about emotions and not the reality of getting rid of a dangerous animal. Dangerous animals are put down all the time, it’s just that this story is blown out of proportion by the left and unfortunately many on the right are falling for it.
Noem is a farm/ranch girl. Rural people put down all sorts of animals all the time. I suspect she simply was not aware of the emotional impact that would surge from the left over this.
If that’s all they can find against her, I think she’d be OK.
I hear more worried people on the right cite the dog business, mainly how it would play to Americans.
The core reality is that she put down a dangerous animal to guarantee her family’s safety.
That is the relevant point that resonates.
If Noem wants to counter all the negative publicity over the killing of her dog, all she has to do is point people to the number of dogs who are put down every year because they killed someone else’s pet or worse, killed a person. Granted, on a percentage basis, fatal dog attacks are rare, but they do happen - fifteen in 2023 alone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_States