Donald Trump’s potential running mate in the US election has continued to defend the death of her family’s puppy after saying the animal was “extremely dangerous”.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem told Fox News that the 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, named Cricket, was a “working dog” and “not a puppy.”
She said in the interview that the dog “came to us from a family that considered her very aggressive,” adding that the animal had “butchered” a neighbor’s cattle the day she shot him to death about 20 years ago.
The Republican governor continued: “At the time, I had young children, a lot of young children who worked around our businesses and our people, and I wanted to make sure they were safe.”
Ms. Noem, who is being examined as the Republican candidate for vice president in this year’s US elections, also said the dog was “extremely dangerous”.
The account of Noem killing the wire pointer was first reported by The Guardian last week after obtaining a copy of her book, called No Going Back: The Truth On What’s Wrong With Politics And How We Move America Forward, which must be released. this month.
She has since defended her behavior multiple times.
The mother of three writes in her book that she took Cricket on a bird hunting trip with older dogs in hopes of calming her down.
However, she claims the dog attacked a family’s chickens and then “turned around to bite me.”
Ms. Noem says she therefore took the dog to a quarry and shot it dead.
Political rivals have criticized Noem since the story broke, when experts who work with hunting dogs said she could have trained the animal instead of killing it.
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Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz posted on X: “Post a photo with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting him and throwing him in a gravel pit. I’ll start.”
The post included a photo of him spoon-feeding his Labrador mix named Scout ice cream.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign shared a photo of the American leader walking on the White House lawn with one of his three German shepherds.
Mr. Biden’s dogs who would have bitten team members they were donated to or removed from the president’s Washington home.
Ms. Noem has tried to frame her actions as an example of her willingness to make difficult decisions.
On Sunday, she wrote on the social media platform
South Dakota Senate Democratic Minority Leader Reynold Nesiba believes Noem’s decision to share the details in her book is calculated, claiming that a story has circulated among politicians for years that the governor killed her dog in a “tantrum”.
“She knew this was a political vulnerability and needed to expose it before it emerged elsewhere,” said Nesiba.
“Why else would she write about this?”
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
