South Dakota Gov. and potential Republican vice presidential candidate Kristi Noem, 52, is facing criticism for sharing a story in her upcoming memoir about how she shot and killed her family’s 14-year-old dog on their ranch. Though her memoir, titled “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” is not set to be released until May 7, The Guardian obtained an early copy and detailed the story. The British newspaper’s article , which was cited by Reuters, described a section in Noem’s book in which she says she shot the dog after deciding it was “dangerous” and “untrainable.” Noem wrote that the dog had ruined a hunting trip and then attacked a local family’s chickens, behaving like a “trained killer” that was “dangerous to anyone who came near him,” according to her account. Noem said she took her gun and led the dog, named Cricket, to a gravel pit. There, she shot and killed the animal. “It wasn’t a pleasant task, but it was one that had to be done,” she wrote. The story has been met with condemnation online. “If you want elected officials who don’t brag about brutally killing their family pets … vote Democrat,” the Democratic National Committee tweeted. Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, tweeted : “There are a lot of things you can recover from in politics, spin, change the narrative, etc — killing a dog is not one of them.” Colleen O’Brien, senior director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, condemned Noem’s decision to kill the dog, saying that Noem “allowed this untrained dog to roam free to terrorize chickens, then punished him instead of training him or finding him a more responsible guardian who could provide him with a proper home.” Noem has defended herself against the backlash, writing in a post on the social media site X: “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a ranch. Sadly, a few weeks ago we had to put down three horses that had been in our family for 25 years.” Noem served as the state’s lone member of the House of Representatives for eight years before being elected as its first female governor in 2018. She is now among the candidates being considered by Trump to be his running mate in his bid to unseat President Joe Biden on Nov. 5, Trump allies and friends have told Reuters. Noem has said she would be open to being Trump’s pick for the Republican ticket, saying that “anybody with any sense in the party would not say no” if he asked. For Trump, Noem — who has high approval ratings as governor in the Midwestern state — would bring several advantages, including her status as a moderate Republican, a woman and someone with sway in key constituencies, including the powerful gun lobby. Read Also: Donald Trump anuncia planos para cativar minorias negra e latina (Portuguese version)