South Dakota - Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, is rumored to be a frontrunner for Donald Trump's running mate, but a passage from her new book is sparking a fresh wave of backlash for the potential candidate.

In No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, Noem reveals that she once killed her 14-month-old dog.

The book will be published next month, but the Guardian already reported on some excerpts on Friday.

Cricket, as the furry friend was called, was of the German Wirehaired Hound breed and had an "aggressive personality," the Republican explains in her book.

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"I hated that dog," the 52-year-old writes.

Apparently unable to train the pup, she even tried a shock collar to attempt to correct his behavior. One day, Cricket escaped Noem's truck and attacked a family's chickens, "grabb[ing] one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another." The dog then bit her as well.

Cricket was "untrainable" and "dangerous to anyone she came into contact with."

"At that moment," Noem says, "I realized I had to put her down."

She took the young dog to a gravel pit and shot her with her own gun.

"It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done."

Noem then also executed a goat that was "nasty and mean" and often chased her children.

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As for why the politician opted to share the tales publicly, she claims she did so to prove that she's prepared to do "difficult, messy, and ugly" things if necessary.

The anti-abortion activist from South Dakota is considered a top candidate for the role of Trump's running mate.

After the Guardian published the story about the executed Cricket, Noem took to X to defend her actions.

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

The Democratic Party leadership, meanwhile, issued a statement on behalf of the "Dogmocratic Party" in response to the passage: "If you want elected officials who don't brag about brutally killing their pets as part of their self-promotional book tour, then listen to our owners: vote Democrat."