Mitt Romney says his dog scandal doesn’t compare to Kristi Noem’s: ‘I didn’t shoot my dog’

Mitt Romney may have infamously tied a dog in a kennel to the roof of his car for a cross-country trip but at least he didn’t shoot it, the Utah Republican senator said, as outrage over the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, telling her story of killing a 14-month-old hunting dog continued to ripple through US politics.

Related: Kristi Noem’s dog-killing embodies the cruel phonyness of today’s Republicans | Ryan Busse

“I didn’t eat my dog. I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me,” Romney said, on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, as reported by HuffPost.

Noem’s story of killing Cricket the dog – and an unnamed goat – is contained in her forthcoming book, the now somewhat ironically titled No Going Back.

The Guardian obtained a copy of the book and reported the story of the dog and the goat last week, setting off a political firestorm and casting into doubt Noem’s chances of being named Donald Trump’s Republican presidential running mate in this election, despite being one of his most enthusiastic acolytes.

“I hated that dog,” Noem wrote, after describing how Cricket, a female wirehair pointer, ruined a pheasant hunt and killed a neighbour’s chickens.

Noem wrote that she took Cricket to a gravel pit and shot her. She then killed the goat – with two shotgun blasts separated by a walk back to her truck for more shells – in the same pit, because the goat smelled bad and was aggressive because it had not been castrated, the governor said.

Romney was the Republican nominee for president in 2012. During the campaign, he was dogged by controversy over the story of how he once transported a family dog, Seamus the Irish setter, on the roof of his car on a 12-hour trip, terrifying the animal.

His remark this week about not having eaten a dog was a dig at Barack Obama, the Democrat who beat him in 2012, and who wrote in one of his memoirs of eating dog in Indonesia when he was young.

Romney is now a lonely anti-Trump voice in the congressional Republican party. Due to retire at the end of the year, he has become a go-to source for candid political remarks.

On Tuesday, Romney told HuffPost that Noem’s admission “kind of makes it a little difficult for President Trump to find someone to be his [vice-president]”.

He added: “He has to look for someone smarter than him, [a] better speaker than him and, like him, does not get burdened with principles.”

Noem has defended her story of killing Cricket and the goat, saying it was the kind of tough thing often necessitated by life on a farm, and indicated willingness to do similar dirty work in politics. Animal and hunting experts have contradicted her claim of the necessity of shooting the young dog.

A Guardian review of South Dakota law suggested Noem might have committed misdemeanour offences, by creating a situation where Cricket was able to kill the chickens after she escaped from her truck, following the hunt where he allegedly misbehaved by being too boisterous. Noem killing the animal later on her own property may also have violated local laws.

A spokesperson for the governor did not comment. She was also criticised for saying in one statement that her family had recently put down three horses.

In March, in an interview with the rightwing Newsmax channel, she discussed those killings, of horses named Lucy, Dunny and Tibbs – and shared pictures of the horses standing in freshly dug pits.

“These weren’t just horses,” Noem said, of the elderly equines. “These were family members … they raised my girls.”