Peanut the Squirrel’s Demise Sparks MAGA Backlash

It’s difficult to assume {that a} squirrel would possibly tilt the presidential election, nevertheless it’s 2024, so right here we’re. 

It began closing week, when an Instagram-famous rodent named Peanut was once taken from a area close to Elmira, New York, along side a raccoon named Fred. Peanut had lived with Mark Longo and his spouse, Daniela, for the previous seven years; Fred had lived there for roughly 5 months. Rescuing Peanut from near-death and bonding with him had impressed the couple to begin a nonprofit animal sanctuary — P’Nut Freedom Farm — and Fred were left at their doorstep. 

However then, on Oct. 30, the New York Division of Environmental Conservation (DEC) raided their house, and after a five-hour seek, the 2 animals have been confiscated. Consistent with a remark given to WENY, an area TV station, through the DEC and the county well being division, Peanut had bitten some of the investigators, and each animals needed to be euthanized as a way to take a look at for rabies. 

In a extra affordable timeline, the animals’ caretakers and lovers would mourn them, and most likely it could spark web discourse at the ethics of conserving wild animals indoors, successfully as pets. (The entire different animals of their care are living outdoor.) However like a 2024 Murphy’s regulation, if one thing finally ends up trending, it should turn into political. 

So when Longo posted about his anger with the DEC for the use of tax greenbacks to raid his nonprofit sanctuary, it were given picked up through native Republican politicians blaming Gov. Kathy Hochul. Then Elon Musk, the arena richest’s guy, were given concerned, meming the squirrel to oblivion whilst his minions started cranking out AI sludge of former President Donald Trump and Peanut status triumphantly, in combination. Trump’s marketing campaign posted on TikTok: “Vote Trump for Peanut.” His account wrote that Peanut was once “needlessly murdered through Democrat bureaucrats in New York,” including: “We can avenge you on Tuesday on the poll field.” 

By means of Sunday, the squirrel was once at the quilt of the New York Put up. 

Longo tells Rolling Stone that he’s stunned that, in this kind of fraught week in American historical past, any person cares this a lot about his squirrel, however he does respect the outpouring of enhance. “The truth that my squirrel made nationwide international historical past [in] the closing week is little short of unbelievable,” he tells Rolling Stone. “However that’s no longer what I sought after from this. I sought after my animal.”

Who’s Peanut and the way did he turn into a noted squirrel?

About seven years in the past, Mark Longo, then residing in Connecticut and dealing in New York, was once leaving a role within the town and noticed a squirrel get hit through a automobile. When he went to scare its child again onto the sidewalk, the squirrel ran up his leg as a substitute. With just one eye open and a foul limp, Longo began to name native vets. “All of them stated they might most likely simply euthanize him,” he advised the YouTube channel The Koala in 2022. “So I began researching squirrels.” After eight-months of DIY rehab, he stated, he launched Peanut into his yard, however the squirrel was once temporarily attacked through any other animal, dropping part his tail within the procedure. “That was once just about the top of Peanut’s natural world occupation,” he stated. It did, even though, spark his pastime in rescuing animals. He introduced an Instagram web page for his puppy, fired up a occupation as an OnlyFans type (sure, his care for there’s Squirrel Daddy), and in a couple of years, had sufficient cash for him and his spouse to ditch town existence for Western New York. 

Many of the animals they took in — horses, alpacas — don’t require licensing. But it surely wasn’t criminal for the big name of the operation, Peanut, as a possible rabies vector, to are living long-term indoors. About six months in the past, after Peanut’s big name started to upward push, nameless proceedings flooded into the Division of Environmental Conservation. He were given a decision caution him to get proper with the state, and he began the method of registering Peanut as an academic animal. “Me and my spouse went and took the natural world [rehabilitator] license [test],” he says. “We have been within the procedure of having bureaucracy filed. We have been doing our due diligence.” He says they’d occasional visits from native natural world products and services however that they by no means discovered any problems on the farm. “Animal Keep watch over turned into an acquaintance,” he says. “They have been getting such a lot of calls and proceedings, and they might arise right here and say, the entirety is just right. The entire animals up listed below are advantageous.”

When did Fred the raccoon become involved?

Consistent with Longo, Fred was once left on the refuge’s doorstep a month or two after that preliminary name from the DEC. He says that he and his spouse have been so taken through the animal that they, admittedly, didn’t glance into further licensing to stay it. “He had like 60 ticks that we plucked off,” he says. “We wiped clean him up, we were given him prepped, and he was once going to go back to the wild once he were given large enough.” Fred temporarily turned into some of the stars in their social media channels. 

What took place with the raid? 

Whilst the DEC didn’t reply to Rolling Stone’s request for remark, Longo claims that it was once an arranged effort through web trolls to weigh down the company with nameless proceedings that introduced the raid. As he has tearfully recounted repeatedly during the last days, after a pass judgement on signed off on a seek warrant, six DEC officials in addition to a handful of alternative regulation enforcement arrived at his house not easy the squirrel and the raccoon. 

“My spouse in an instant advised the law enforcement officials the place Fred was once,” he says. “We did attempt to stay Peanut away, to peer if I may communicate them off a ledge.” The investigation lasted 5 hours, he says, which intended that his rescue horses neglected more than one foods and essential care as a result of he couldn’t generally tend to them. “Those are animals which were starved,” he says. “And now you’re ravenous them your self.”  

Because the raid, Longo has been fast to criticize the Division of Environmental Conservation — a statewide company run out of Albany — for its dealing with in their case. He says he’s had a number of interactions with native natural world government, and that they discovered no problems with the farm. 

Then issues were given political?

“I’m the primary one to mention that I shy clear of politics, nevertheless it sparks me within the sense of, ‘That is how the federal government is administered in New York State?’” he tells Rolling Stone. “I don’t need Peanut’s title to die in useless.” 

Retaining a raccoon — an animal this is identified to hold rabies — of their area with out suitable licensing was once unlawful, however they’ve retained a legal professional and plan to pursue criminal motion, even though Longo declines to remark in particular on what that might be. 

Some Republicans have used this as a possibility to take criminal steps; over the weekend, New York State Assmeblymember Jake Blumencranz introduced on X that he’d be introducing the “Peanut’s Legislation: Humane Animal Protections Act.” However overwhelmingly, the reaction from the precise was once merely to spin Democrats because the celebration of such rampant govt overreach that it kills helpless animals, and Trump as the one one that can save the rustic. “Are those the similar guys that killed my whale and my undergo? And, what took place to the pinnacle?” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joked on X, regarding the complicated animal-related scandals that plagued his marketing campaign this summer time. “Simply soliciting for a pal.”