Ms Noem, who is being vetted as the Republican candidate for vice president, has written in her upcoming book that she shot the 14-month-old dog, named Cricket, after the wirehaired pointer tried to bite her.
A potential running mate for Donald Trump in the US election has continued to defend shooting dead her family’s puppy after saying the animal was “extremely dangerous”.
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem has told Fox News the 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, who was named Cricket, was a “working dog” and “not a puppy”.
She said in the interview that the female dog had “come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive”, adding that the animal had “massacred” a neighbour’s livestock on the day she shot it dead around 20 years ago.
The Republican governor continued: “At the time, I had small children, a lot of small kiddos that worked around our business and people, and I wanted to make sure that they were safe.”
Ms Noem, who is being vetted as the Republican candidate for vice president in this year’s US election, also said the dog was “extremely dangerous”.
The account of Ms Noem killing the wirehaired pointer was first reported by The Guardian last week after it obtained a copy of her book, named No Going Back: The Truth On What’s Wrong With Politics And How We Move America Forward, which is due for release this month.
She has since defended her behaviour multiple times.
The mother-of-three writes in her book that she had taken Cricket on a bird hunting trip with older dogs in the hopes of calming her down.
However, she claims the dog attacked a family’s chickens and then “whipped around to bite me”.
Ms Noem says she therefore led the dog to a gravel pit and shot it dead.
Political rivals have criticised Ms Noem since the story emerged as experts who work with hunting dogs said she could have trained the animal rather than killing it.
