Government Raids New York Man’s Home, Euthanizes His Internet-Famous Pet Squirrel, Peanut

Aaron Ryan·
RIFF OUTDOORS
·
Peanut the Squirrel
@peanut_the_squirrel12

Thank goodness we have the government to keep us safe from threats like…Peanut the squirrel.

Not go get too anti-government or political here, but come on. Don’t they have bigger things to worry about and better things to do than go after a man for his pet squirrel?

Well apparently not in New York, because Mark Longo says officials showed up to his Pine City, NY home this week with a warrant to seize his 7-year old pet squirrel, Peanut.


The animal has become famous on social media, racking up over 550,000 followers on Instagram from the photos and videos that Longo posts of his furry friend. The man first rescued the squirrel after Peanut’s mother was hit by a car. He attempted to find a shelter that would take the critter, but when he couldn’t he decided to keep the squirrel and feed it himself until Peanut was big enough to be released into the wild.

But when he attempted to set the squirrel free, he found him back on his porch the next day:

“I released him in the backyard, and a day and a half later, I found him sitting on my porch, missing half his tail. So here I am, bawling my eyes out, like, I failed you as your human. And I kind of opened the door, he ran inside and that was the last of Peanut’s wildlife career.”

Peanut has since become an internet sensation, and Longo has turned his animal rescue into a nonprofit that has helped animals ranging from horses and alpacas to parrots and geese.

But after receiving complaints about Peanut, officials from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation showed up at Longo’s home on Wednesday with a search warrant, raiding the home to search for the squirrel.

According to Longo:

“Ten to twelve DEC officers raided my house as if I was a drug dealer. I was sat outside my house for five hours. I had to get a police escort to my bathroom. I wasn’t even allowed to feed my rescue horses breakfast or lunch. I was sat there like a criminal after they interrogated my wife to check out her immigration status.”

Since when does the government care about immigration status? (Sorry, I said I wasn’t going to get political but I couldn’t help myself).

Well ultimately, Peanut was confiscated along with a rescue raccoon that Longo had in his house. And unfortunately, it was later announced that the government had euthanized both the squirrel and the raccoon.

In a statement issued earlier this week, officials said the squirrel had bitten somebody during the confiscation, so he had to be put down in order to test him for rabies.

Now, it’s illegal to own a pet squirrel in the state of New York (because of course it is), but was Peanut really hurting anybody? Is anybody better off now that he’s gone? They wasted a ton of tax dollars, killed a harmless animal and raided a man’s home, all because some internet Karens or PETA or whoever it was filed an anonymous complaint. What the hell are we doing here?

And the internet is (rightfully) rallying around the squirrel and his owner, calling out the government for their insane overreach and abuse of power:

Rest in peace, Peanut.

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