Kristi Noem killed her pet dog, "Cricket," after the animal misbehaved on a hunting trip, she says

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican seen as a potential running mate for Donald Trump, tells a story in her new book about shooting and killing her young dog and a goat, The Guardian reported.

In the book, Noem explains in excruciating detail how she gunned down a 14-month-old wirehair pointer named "Cricket." What crimes earned this dog the death penalty? Noem reported that the puppy was disobedient and out “having the time of her life” during a pheasant hunting trip and that the animal later attacked and killed a neighbor's chickens.

The ill-fated Cricket proved not to be a bad hunter, after all, but was guilty of killing the wrong kind of bird. According to Noem, since a shock collar didn't instill the desired discipline, the only reasonable thing to do was to kill the excitable and “untrainable” pup.

Noem, who became governor in 2019, likened murdering her canine to having the ability and willingness in politics to do anything “difficult, messy, and ugly.” It’s not the only animal she chose to sacrifice that day, she wrote: "​​I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.”

The “job” in question was killing a “nasty and mean” male family goat. What outrageous crimes did the goat, whom she described as “disgusting, musky, rancid,” commit other than needing a bath? The uncastrated, unnamed farm animal, “loved to chase” Noem’s children, knocking them down and ruining their clothes.

After killing the goat, who proved to put up a bit more of a fight than the defenseless dog, Noem wrote that the school bus arrived to drop off her kids. Her daughter Kennedy looked confused, according to Noem, asking: “Hey, where’s Cricket?”

“I guess if I were a better politician I wouldn’t tell the story here,” Noem wrote.