Disney heiress goes after 'potential Trump VP' Kristi Noem with 'Old Yeller' comparison
Disney heiress, Abigail Disney, evoked the classic Disney movie, Old Yeller, in a recent play to call on voters to oppose the Republican Party after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's recent book detailed her shooting her ranch dog.
"My great-uncle Walt Disney knew the magic place animals have in the hearts of families everywhere," Disney wrote in an email released by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and obtained exclusively by the Guardian.
Disney, the grandniece of Walt Disney, said that Noem's anecdote of killing her dog in her new book, "No Going Back," "shocked" her.
"When he released Old Yeller, the heart-wrenching story stayed with people because no one takes the killing of a family pet lightly," Disney said. "At least that’s what I thought until I read about potential Trump VP Kristi Noem shooting her family’s puppy – a story that has shocked so many of us."
In "No Going Back," the Republican governor described shooting her dog after it attacked a neighbor's chickens.
Disney said that Noem's description of killing her ranch dog was part of "the larger story of the 2024 election."
"Walt Disney also understood story telling. Together, we must make sure all voters see how this sad Kristi Noem episode is part of the larger story of the 2024 election: America could vote into the White House extremists that glorify cruelty and lack basic empathy and compassion," she told the PCCC.
Since facing backlash for the killing of her ranch dog, Noem has fiercely defended her actions, framing it as her ability to make "tough decisions."
During an interview with FOX Business' Stuart Varney, the Republican governor said that the dog was "vicious," and called the backlash "ridiculous."
"This was a vicious, dangerous dog. That was a working dog. And I had to make a choice between the safety of my children and an animal that was killing livestock and attacking people," Noem told Varney. "So it's included because a lot of politicians have run from the truth. They want to try to hide from tough decisions."
"I'm proud of this book," Noem said. "I know that a lot of people are using attacks to try to take me down because they're scared of me. I have so much support and all I've done is won."
Disney said that unlike the compassionate shooting of Old Yeller, Noem shot the dog because it was "too hard to teach."
"In Old Yeller, the family comes to see the lovable stray dog as an indispensable member of the family. The film’s climactic moment is a heartbreaking one, when the father has no choice but to shoot Old Yeller when the dog contracts rabies because of the inevitable threat to their lives – and, out of compassion, to end the suffering the dog would have to endure," Disney said in the letter to the PCCC.
"Noem shot her family’s 14-month-old puppy after a hunting trip, in her own account, because she was too hard to teach," Disney said. "‘I hated that dog,’ she wrote, framing the killing of a puppy as an example of strength."
"Kristi Noem is not strong. Like Trump, she is cruel and selfish," she said.
"If Kristi Noem was actually strong, she would stand up to the January 6 insurrectionists instead of celebrating them," she said. "Or she would make billionaires pay their fair share of taxes instead of lining up for their campaign donations."
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"If she had real courage, she might even criticize the Supreme Court for abolishing abortion rights or making it easier to flood our streets and schools with guns," Disney said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Gov. Noem's office, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Abigail Disney for comment.
Fox News' Audrey Spady contributed to this report.