Kevin Roberts' dog-killing story

 Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation and head of Trump's Project 2025, was previously a history professor at New Mexico State University. While at the university, he told colleagues and dinner guests that he was irritated by the barking of a neighbor's dog, so he killed it with a shovel. Kenneth Hammond, then chairman of the history department, told The Guardian:

My recollection of his account was that he was discussing in the hallway with various members of the faculty, including me, that a neighbor’s dog had been barking pretty relentlessly and was, you know, keeping the baby and probably the parents awake and that he kind of lost it and took a shovel and killed the dog. End of problem.

Two other former colleagues report hearing the same story directly from Roberts; three others report hearing the story repeated from people who heard it directly from Roberts.

Roberts denies the story, claiming instead:

In 2004, a neighbor’s chained pit bull attempted to jump a fence into my backyard as I was gardening with my young daughter. Thankfully, the owner arrived in time to restrain the animal before it could get loose and attack us. 

 (Source: Stephanie Kirchgaessner, "Project 2025 mastermind allegedly told colleagues he killed a dog with a shovel," The Guardian, 24 September 2024)

See the "conservative animal abuse" tag on this blog for several other accounts of prominent conservatives killing or abusing dogs and cats.