Why Was Peanut the Squirrel Euthanized?

It's unlikely you had an internet-famous squirrel unifying the country on your 2024 bingo card, but here we are.

Peanut — a 7-year-old squirrel owned by Mark and Daniela Longo — was euthanized by New York state officials last week, and everyone is ticked.

OK, some people are mildly sympathetic to the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation's plea that Peanut and a raccoon named Fred were a rabies risk, but there were far more reactions like this one:

"Getting a warrant for a squirrel that lives inside someone's home for 7 years, then killing the squirrel is the next level of insanity."

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That was @archwaydefense in a comment left at the @peanut_the_squirrell12 Instagram post of the Longos' sharing what had happened.

Who Is Peanut the Squirrel?

About seven years ago, Mark Longo saw a squirrel get hit by a car in New York as her baby (Peanut) looked on. He decided to bring the animal home and tried to release it eight months later, but it didn't take. So from that point on, he cared for it, and over time made Peanut a social media star (698K on Instagram).

Fred the raccoon's story is less clear. NBC notes that he's a recent addition, but he's still featured prominently on social media. The aftermath of it all has been heartbreaking, with the Longos posting several remembrance videos set to songs like Kyle Hume's "If I Would Have Known."

Why Was Peanut the Squirrel Euthanized?

The NYDEC website makes it clear that keeping young wildlife as pets is illegal and dangerous. Rabies was the chief concern, with a note that one official was bitten during the ordeal.

However, the state's department of health contradicts this in noting that squirrels "almost never" have rabies.

Several anonymous complaints were enough for officials to turn up at the Longo farm with a search warrant last Wednesday (Oct. 30). They seized both animals, but the couple held out home for a reconciliation, especially after thousands signed a petition.

On Nov. 1, they revealed that both animals had been killed.

Who Are Mark and Daniele Longo, Peanut's "Parents"?

Mark and Daniele met because of Peanut. A profile at the Greenwich Free Press explains how one of the squirrel videos ended up in her inbox, and before long the two were talking about business before agreeing to meet in Las Vegas, where she lived.

They opened Peanut's Freedom Farm in 2023. It's an animal sanctuary, and they've gone to great lengths to save horses, pigs, alpacas, donkeys and more.

"So while we focus on our animals saved from the kill pens, we also take in animals from people who are retiring or people with financial issues," Mark tells the newspaper in an article from August.

TMZ and the New York Post shared another stream of income the couple rely on: OnlyFans. In fact, Longo went as far as to suggest that this was the real motivation for the raid, noting that the first thing agents asked was if there were cameras on the property.

He also tells TMZ that he's not yet been charged with any crime.