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Some Americans worship dogs, but that's a relatively recent development with some pretty significant exceptions. She was clearly trying to play up some rural/farm credentials, where the attitude towards pets is a far cry from "fur baby."
There are still parts of the country where you could tell this story and not get much more than a raised eyebrow, if that. It's a misread of how far the mainstream has shifted on the issue, but you can see the attitude it came from. It's like Mitt Romney telling that story about a cross-country road trip with the family dog in a crate strapped to the roof.
Eh, I don't entirely agree. Even on the "classic farmer" archetype, just casually shooting a dog is pretty crazy. Lots of farmers have a dog roaming around on their property that may not be materially benefitting them. Even if it's not treated like a child, that doesn't mean it's not an emotional connection for a lot of people.
Plenty of people far removed from a context where they regularly kill animals will hurt pets who anger them. "This dog pissed me off and is useless, I'll shoot it with this gun I have already in my hand" is not that big of a step from there.
A farmer being willing to kill a cow or a chicken does not translate to them flippantly shooting their dog, not on average.
There are some animal abusers that would kill a dog without caring yeah, but that's not a sizable voting constituency lol.
Well yeah, that's why it was a bad idea to tell this story!
All I'm saying is you can see where she got the idea. There are still some places where this might be frowned upon but wouldn't be outrageous, and it wasn't too long ago that much more of the country was like that. A slightly different story would have likely had the intended effect.
Here in rural Australia a friend has a farm and has a sideline raising and training working dogs. He regularly shoots the ones who he says have the wrong temperament. It happens often, as in monthly or so. If one of his own working dog is too old and can't keep up (he has 3 or 4 at any one time) , or it is injured, same thing. I suspended it's fairly ubiquitous in rural areas.