Social Media Star Peanut the Squirrel Killed By New York State
Remember that squirrel that narrowly escaped being burned to death at a simulated volcano attraction in Disney World earlier this year? It turns out he was much safer braving bursts of fire than he would have been in a nice, safe home in New York. Seven years ago, Mark Longo, who lived in Connecticut at the time, took in a squirrel whose mother was killed by a car. Naming him Peanut, or P’NUT, Longo created several popular social media accounts based on his new friend, including an Instagram account with 571,000 followers, a Facebook page with 424,000 followers, and a TikTok page with 67,700 followers and over two million views. Last year, Longo moved to Elmira, New York, to start a non-profit animal rescue organization inspired by Peanut, which he called P’nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary. According to the website, P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary is a place “where neglected and homeless animals receive a second chance at life.” The site also details why Peanut became an indoor, domesticated pet: he was not equipped to survive in the wild and was injured when Longo tried to set him loose. The sanctuary was funded in large part by the money generated from Peanut’s social media accounts.
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On Wednesday, Longo received a visit from officers of the Department of Environmental Conservation, or the DEC, a state agency that got a warrant to search Longo’s home due to complaints sent over the internet that Longo and his wife were unlawfully housing animals. They seized Peanut and a pet raccoon named Fred, but in the course of having a bunch of strangers remove him from his home, Peanut bit one of the investigators. So, claiming they had to test the two animals for rabies (because rabid animals would totally live in peace and harmony in a private house), the DEC killed them both on Friday. Excuse me… I think I’m supposed to say “euthanized” so as not to hurt their feelings. Longo described what happened on TMZ in a video you can see below:
NEW: The owner of Peanut the squirrel explains how New York officials raided his house, took Peanut and his raccoon, and k*lled them.
7-year-old Peanut and Fred the raccoon were euthanized after anonymous complaints.
“Officers raided my house as if I was a drug dealer. I was… pic.twitter.com/sSlbandoYO
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 2, 2024
I’m going to have to be very careful when I word this because I’m angry. If you don’t have any in your area, squirrels are not dangerous or a nuisance. They don’t hurt anyone, and they scurry away if you get too close. They’re plentiful in New York, and they’re less of a bother than virtually any other wildlife. Peanut was more than that; he was someone’s pet, and as far as I know, there were no instances of him hurting anyone before Colonel Landa and his henchmen kicked down the door. Raccoons can be a little different, but again, this one was domesticated; if Fred were rabid, Mark Longo and his wife would have found out the hard way by now. But some of the most awful people on the internet did what people on the internet love to do and made trouble for the Longos, and the state was only too happy to oblige them. Now, two harmless, happy animals – who were someone’s pets – are dead. Moreover, Peanut was the main source of income for an animal sanctuary that protected and cared for other lost or abused creatures.
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How does any of this help “conservation,” which is in the DEC’s title? But that’s the rub; nobody thinks it does, including these DEC thugs and whoever helped them. This is government being government, pushing people around because they can, and I guarantee everyone involved in killing Peanut and Fred won’t lose a minute of sleep over it. (Hell, they work for the government; they probably nap periodically during the day.) That asshole got bitten because that’s what happens when you corner and threaten even the most peaceful of animals. If they wanted this to go smoothly, they could have brought Longo and his wife in to soothe Peanut and Fred; instead, they made them sit outside for hours, even forcing them to have a police escort to use their own bathroom – again, for no other reason than because they could. And you know damn well why they asked if Longo had any cameras in his house; they knew exactly how this would look if the video got out. This is monstrously evil, and it should scare anyone who has a pet because if you think they’ll stop at squirrels and raccoons, you’ve got another thing coming. These people are drunk with power, and while I don’t want to get too far into partisan politics, how do you think this looks for the “big government” side of the divide in an election year?
I understand that NY State killing Peanut the squirrel involves the death of a rodent, and to some people that seems unimportant, but when you bond with an animal as a pet, there’s a sentimental and emotional connection that should be respected. That New York state would allow…
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) November 2, 2024
If you’re inclined, you can donate to P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary here.
Okay, I’m going to allow myself one: I hope whichever one of these monsters Peanut bit got his fucking finger ripped off.
Let us know what you think of Peanut and Fred in the comments.
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Comments (2)
Those advocacy groups are all scams. These people have no convictions, just a thirst for power and money. I enjoyed that almost no one is defending it, though; they’re just keeping their mouths shut, which means they know how angry this makes normal people.
You beat me to it. Was gonna start an entire thread on this. Notice, there’s no PETA. There are no celebrities. So, they’re nature planet mumbo jumbo is all exposed with this story. You’d think Al Gore would say something about the squirrel. The let in Haitians to eat other pets. They slaughter squirrels. Wonder if Kamala personally ordered this hit?
Invader illegal immigrants have worse diseases than rabies and they let them in by the thousands. I hope this squirrel becomes a martyr.