South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has been a topic of online chatter after excerpts from her upcoming memoir were published by The Guardian on Friday.

In her book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” Noem details how she had to put a dog down for being “untrainable.”

The confession caught the attention and criticism from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

“Dogs are a gift from God,” tweeted Alyssa Farah Griffin, co-host of “The View” and former Donald Trump White House staffer. “They’re a reflection of his unconditional love. Anyone who would needlessly hurt an animal because they are inconvenient needs help.”

 The Democratic National Committee called the excerpts from the book “horrifying” and “disturbing.”

Amid the backlash, Noem responded saying she understands “why some people are upset about a 20-year-old story,” but defended the decision to kill the dog.

“We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm,” Noem said in a post on X. “Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

Noem is a contender to become Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Here’s what we know about the governor.

Who is Gov. Kristi Noem?

According to the governor’s website, Noem, who is the governor of South Dakota, is also a rancher, farmer and small business owner.

She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 and elected as South Dakota’s first female governor in 2018.

Today, she is also a New York Times best selling author. In January 2022, she published her first book, “Not My First Rodeo: Lessons from the Heartland,” and the website states she was re-elected as governor with the “largest vote total in the history of South Dakota.”

Could Kristi Noem run with Donald Trump?

The governor is a contender to become Trump’s vice presidential running mate, but recent polling from New River Strategies, which was published by Politico, states that only 14% of Americans consider her to be a good choice for the Republican ticket.

The report also states that 86% of 2020 Trump voters report liking or loving dogs and that 39% of them do not believe she would be a good choice for vice president. Only 22% said she would be.

Why did Kristi Noem kill her dog Cricket?

According to The Guardian, Noem said she killed her dog because of its “aggressive personality” and called the dog “untrainable.”

In her book, she writes that the dog’s name was Cricket and that she was a 14-month-old Wirehair Pointer. According to the RSPCA, puppies become adolescent dogs between 6 and 12 months old or 18 to 24 months.

The American Kennel Club rates the dog breed as “love-dovey” when it comes to how affectionate they are with family.

In her post on X, Noem said that South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down.

“Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did,” she wrote.

She added: “Whether running the ranch or in politics, I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle. Even if it’s hard and painful. I followed the law and was being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor.”

What is Kristi Noem’s new book?

According to its description, Noem’s book “No Going Back” shares “eye-opening realities of DC dysfunction, lessons from leading her state through unprecedented challenge, and how we seize this moment to move America forward.”

On X, she said the book “is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned.”

It’s set to release on May 7.

Some people outraged by the controversy are already dropping negative reviews of the book on GoodReads.

Contributing: Tim Reid, Reuters

Julia is a trending reporter for USA TODAY. She has covered various topics, from local businesses and government in her hometown, Miami, to tech and pop culture. You can follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok: @juliamariegz

Kristi Noem on Sunday took to Donald Trump’s social network to defend the controversial story about killing a dog that she reveals in her upcoming book. “Whether running the ranch or in politics, I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle. Even if it’s hard and painful. I followed the law and was being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor,” the South Dakota governor said in a statement on Truth Social cited by Politico. She says state law allows for the killing of dogs who attack or kill livestock, and reiterates that, as she says in her book, the dog, which she was trying to train as a working dog on her ranch, had been aggressive and thus had to be put down.

“Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did,” she writes. “As I explained in the book, it wasn’t easy. But often the easy way isn’t the right way.” Fox News reports that Democrats and Republicans alike were taken aback by Noem’s story, with one “popular conservative X account” posting on the social network that as “a country boy who lives on a ranch … There’s a huge difference between putting an old horse down who is suffering, than shooting a 18 month dog for being untrainable.” (More Kristi Noem stories.)

An animal shelter in South Dakota is rebuffing the idea that there’s such a thing as an “untrainable” dog as Republican Gov. Kristi Noem defends a years-old decision to shoot her 14-month-old puppy over its poor behavior.

The governor was widely viewed as a frontrunner in Donald Trump’s vice presidential sweepstakes—until Friday, when The Guardian published excerpts from her forthcoming biography, including grisly details about killing animals on her farm, including the puppy, a female wirehaired pointer named Cricket.

In her book, Noem reportedly writes that Cricket was “untrainable,” “aggressive,” and “less than worthless” as a hunting dog. She recalls dragging Cricket to a gravel pit and shooting her in front of a stricken construction crew after becoming fed up with the dog, who had ruined a hunting trip, killed chickens, and bit her.

Paws Animal Rescue, a shelter based in the capital city of Pierre, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that it had been “flooded with messages” regarding Noem’s anecdote. Though it declined to comment on the governor’s situation, the rescue said its team felt compelled to say something about “untrainable dogs” more generally.

“We haven’t met one yet,” the shelter said. “In all our years in animal rescue and the thousands of animals that have come through our door, we have yet to meet a dog that was so untrainable it deserved to be shot to death.”

The organization said that its volunteer-run team had encountered all kinds of dogs exhibiting problematic behavior, and in every instance worked to “teach them manners” and find them the right homes.

“Is euthanasia sometimes necessary? In certain situations, yes,” the rescue said. “When an animal is so sick that [its] quality of life is inhumane, then humane euthanasia may be the answer. When an animal has been so badly damaged by people or circumstances that it has demons it cannot overcome, sometimes maybe then too.

“When a 14-month-old puppy (who was almost certainly bought from a breeder at 8 weeks and had every opportunity to be taught the right way to behave), absolutely not,” it added.

After it was made public, Noem’s anecdote about Cricket sparked outrage and widespread criticism online, with users questioning why she hadn’t returned the dog to its breeder or surrendered it to a shelter. The Guardian, which obtained a copy of Noem’s book, did not specify if she names Cricket’s breeder in it, and their identity remained unclear on Sunday. But there are more than 60 animal shelters and welfare organizations in South Dakota, according to nonprofit tracker Cause IQ.

Paws Animal Rescue did not immediately return a request for further comment on Sunday night. Their post included a link for donations that would be set aside “specifically for the training and rehabilitation of dogs that come into our care that are ‘untrainable.’”

Noem, 52, on Sunday doubled down on the decision to kill Cricket. Though she said she understood why “some people” might have been “upset” by the anecdote, the governor tweeted that she was “being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor.”

She continued, “The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.”