PNut confiscated and euthanized!
My friend just sent this to me, and I’m in tears. I would be just devastated had this happened to me. I guess The Department of Environmental Conservation should be “proud of themselves” for the devastation they caused not only to PNut but to their caretaker, Mark Longo. Shame on you!
The department announced through a statement on Friday afternoon that both a squirrel and raccoon confiscated from a residence on Wednesday had been euthanized to test for rabies. The statement said a person involved in the confiscation investigation was bitten by the squirrel. Well, how the hell would you react if you were taken by a stranger from your home?
Longo first connected with Peanut when he saw the squirrel’s mom get hit by a car. Unfortunately, the mother passed, leaving Peanut an orphan. Mark was unsuccessful in finding a shelter that would take him in and ended up feeding baby Peanut for about eight months before attempting to release him back into the wild.
“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,” Longo told USA TODAY in 2022. “And I kind of opened the door, he ran inside and that was the last of Peanut’s wildlife career.”
And for many years, Longo, Peanut, and Longo’s cat, Chloe, lived together in their haven and have followers around the world.
Last year, Longo established P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary in Pine City. The nonprofit serves as a “haven where neglected and homeless animals receive a second chance at life,” according to their website. To date, eighteen horses, one mini horse, four cows, three alpacas, one parrot, one pig and two geese call the sanctuary home.
Please share this story with your friends and family. This is an unmitigated disaster!
To post a personal message to Mark and his wife, here is their IG account.
https://www.instagram.com/peanut_the_squirrel12
So very sad… breatheeee…
I don’t get upset very often, but when things like this happen, I just feel so frustrated and lost. There are all kinds of horrible things going on in the world, and this gets the attention of the D.E.C.? There are animals out there being abused, or without homes, and yet Mark gets his long-time friend taken away from him by multiple, armed agents who ransacked his home? And one of their excuses was that there were rabies incidents in the city, therefore… The second one was you are not allowed to keep a squirrel as a pet. Ya, that makes sense but look at the situation. He didn’t grab a squirrel off the street and keep him in a NY city apartment. He is running a legal wildlife sanctuary. Sounds like a bullshit excuse if I ever heard one.
I am going to go read my book and try to put this out of my head for a while. This is so sad.
I’m livid about peanuts. For goodness sake, there are so many real abusers out there to go after, and animals to save.
The outrage is high, as it should be. I hope the DEC is going to take a real backlash for this. We can only hope that it opens some people’s eyes, but I may be dreaming.