Kristi Noem, the Republican vice-presidential candidate who has boasted about killing her family’s pet dog, said Joe Biden should have put down his unruly Alsatian Commander rather than exile him from the White House.

Undaunted by the outcry which followed her revelation that she shot 14-month-old Cricket, the South Dakota governor, who has been tipped as a potential Trump running mate, said the president should have followed her example.

Ms Noem made the fate of pets a campaign issue when she appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation.

“Joe Biden’s dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people,” she said. “So how many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog?”

Commander arrived at the White House as a puppy in 2021, and his fiery temperament was revealed after a Freedom of Information request by CNN.

It found that Secret Service agents had been warned about Commander’s aggressive behaviour, with 10 incidents requiring medical treatment.

He was the second Biden pet to be banished from the presidential household. Major was sent to friends in Delaware after nipping a member of the security detail in March 2021.

Ms Noem adopted a different approach, as she revealed in her memoirs.

“This was a dangerous animal that was killing livestock and attacking people. And I had little children at the time. Our operation had many kids running around and people in interaction with the public. And I made a difficult choice.”

Political experts were less sanguine.

“I think she has torpedoed her chances of a run at the vice presidency,” said Jeff Lord, who served in Ronald Reagan’s White House.

“Ronald Reagan was very good with animals, and that included dogs. There were never any incidents apart from once when a dog was pulling at the leash.

“What baffles me is that when she wrote her memoirs, an editor didn’t advise her not to say this.”

Prof Clive Wynne, director of the Canine Science Collaboratory, said Noem’s advice on dogs is “among the most ill-advised I have ever heard”.

Ms Noem, who also killed her pet goat, was ridiculed on Saturday Night Live, a long-running satire show with a character appearing as “Cricket the Seventh”. The previous six were “bad dogs”. 

The Telegraph has approached the White House for comment.