Donald Trump's potential VP contender Kristi Noem defends killing her dog

Kristi Noem, one of Donald Trump's potential running mates, has been criticised for sharing a story about how she killed her dog in her memoir, "No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward".

In her soon-to-be released memoir, the 52-year-old governor of South Dakota revealed that she shot her "untrainable" and "dangerous" dog, Cricket, in a gravel pit after deciding that she needed to put down, the BBC reported.

"It was not a pleasant job," she wrote. "But it had to be done."

The memoir is due for release on May 7, though an excerpt was obtained by The Guardian.

However, after the tale garnered several reactions from people online, Noem took to X, formerly Twitter to defend herself.

She wrote: "We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years."

Noem, who left college at age 22 to run her family farm in South Dakota, recounted trying to teach her 14-month old wirehaired pointer how to behave by taking her on a pheasant hunt with older dogs, but failed to discipline her.

She realised Cricket had to be put down after the dog attacked a local family's chickens on the way home from the pheasant hunt.

"I hated that dog," she said.

She also got rid of a goat her family owned in the same manner as Cricket.

She described the goat as "nasty and mean", smelling "disgusting, musky, rancid". She revealed that the goat would chase her young children, knocking them down.

Noem said she shot down the goat in the same manner as Cricket.

In the book excerpt, Noem said that she shared the story to illustrate her willingness to do things that are "difficult, messy and ugly" both in politics and in life if necessary.