By by HUCKABEE writer/researcher Laura Ainsworth
November 5, 2024
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“If you want to red-pill America, raid their homes and murder their pets.”
That was Greg Gutfeld in his opening monologue Monday night. And if you wonder why I’m devoting much of Election Eve to writing a second-day, Part 2 coverage on Peanut the squirrel, that’s essentially the reason. The invasion of Mark and Daniela Longo’s home and subsequent killing of this friendly little squirrel and his harmless raccoon companion should tell you just about everything you need to hear about government overreach under Democrat leaders and their jackbooted thugs in 2024.
And no, calling them “jackbooted thugs” isn’t being overdramatic. I’m sick of hearing President Trump called a “dictator” by the very people who love abusing power. They raided Trump’s house to take possession of classified documents that he’d had the authority as President to declassify. And they’ll raid YOUR house to take possession of your pet, your gun, maybe even your child if you insist on calling him or her by the correct pronoun and balk at butchering his/her body irreversibly.
Kurt Schlichter put it well in his Election Eve column: “[Kamala] represents the party of the people who think it’s OK to go to someone’s house and take their beloved pets and murder them simply because they can. If you think Peanut the Squirrel and Fred the Raccoon are one-offs, you are in denial. They killed Ashley Babbitt because they could. They imprisoned their political opponents because they could. They censored Hunter’s laptop because they could. They locked old people in COVID-ridden nursing homes because they could. If they got their wish and disarmed you, what do you think they would do to you?”
“...The horror of the cruelty of killing a beloved and innocent little animal aside, this illustrates what the real stakes are.”
https://townhall.com/
According to Natalie Hoage at YAHOO!NEWS (“Pet Helpful”), it was “anonymous complaints” that led to this travesty, but the source of those complaints might well turn out to be a bigger story, especially if it was someone who has clout with state government. So far, no media outlet has confirmed the involvement of that photographer in Texas, who has nevertheless been branded online as “the Karen who killed Peanut.”
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in New York State said in a statement that they’d “received multiple reports from the public about the potentially unsafe housing of wildlife that could carry rabies and the illegal keeping of wildlife as pets.”
Peanut was a social media phenomenon with over 685,000 Instagram followers. Last Friday, two days after the animals were taken, Longo broke the news on Instagram that the family had learned that both Peanut and Fred had been euthanized. This was ostensibly to test for rabies after Peanut allegedly bit an agent during the confiscation, a claim that seems dubious, given agents’ heavy protective gloves.
Heartbroken fans quickly left over 20,000 comments.
It’s true that an animal has to be euthanized to test for rabies; they need a full cross-section of brain tissue. But Peanut had lived indoors for seven years and had shown no sign of illness.
“The squirrel isn’t just a squirrel,” reads one post on X that had 1.9 million impressions as of Monday afternoon. “Peanut is for everyone who has ever feared that someone more powerful than you could walk into your home and take something that you absolutely cherish away from you, for absolutely no good reason, with no recourse.”
It was Peanut’s huge social media audience that helped fund the Longos’ animal sanctuary, which they moved to last April. Peanut was more than a pet --- he was a business model.
“Despite our passionate outcry for compassion, the agency chose to ignore our pleas, leaving us in deep shock and grief,” Longo said on Instagram. “To add to our anguish, they informed the media of their decision before even notifying P’nuts Freedom Farm, his loving home. This demonstrates a troubling lack of respect and empathy. Their lives were precious, and we refuse to accept this loss in silence.”
https://reason.com/2024/11/04/
Tyrus quipped on the GUTFELD segment, “I don’t have any animals, Greg,” though, of course, viewers know he has many, particularly tropical fish and sea creatures. “You think I want those mother-(bleepers) comin’ to my house?”
“This bothered me on a personal level,” he said. “...Their excuse was that Peanut bit them. What did Fred [the raccoon] do, giggle? This is what these officials do.” Tyrus then proceeded to tell the story to a suddenly hushed audience about his own dog being euthanized after simply being “a good dog” and doing his job, as trained, to protect their property. The animal control officials had lied to him, telling him he would get his dog back.
“Unfortunately, this is not uncommon,” Tyrus said. “The people coming in are power-hungry.” As for the “rabies” cover story, he said, “A squirrel with rabies is not hard to figure out.” They’re “aggressive, and no owner would be holding them.” They have “a little frothy mouth” (kind of like Hunter Biden on crack, he joked, trying to add a little levity).
“It’s a terrible thing,” he said, “and, you know, it DID wake a lot of people up...So, if you’re on the ropes, if you’re not sure, if you want to get on the right team, if you don’t want to vote because Tyrus told you to, which you shouldn’t anyway, or a celebrity, DO IT FOR PEANUT AND FRED.”
Everyone knew the joke had a serious undertone.
Guy Benson called the killing of Peanut “the most cartoonish, disgusting abuse of government that shows all the wrong priorities, and it’s so easy for people to understand…I think this is a horrible story but will focus people’s minds.”
The Brit on the panel, Piers Morgan, said there was something about this story that is “utterly disgusting.” The idea that they can send in ten armed agents for five hours when New York is “riddled with crime, and homelessness, and mayhem” is crazy.
And about the rabies: “Only one set of people,” he said, “seems to me, were behaving like foaming-at-the-mouth rabid animals, and it wasn’t the raccoon and the squirrel. It was the people that had been sent by the government...to eradicate the scourge of this famous little squirrel and his raccoon mate.”
“If you were making this up, it would be funny. But it’s true. And this couple have lost their beloved pet, so remember why they took on this squirrel,” Piers said, relating the story of how they’d rescued the baby squirrel whose mother had died.
“Then he has to have him wrenched away by his own government, and murdered. It is disgusting.”
Kat Timpf, a libertarian, admitted she had a hard time talking about this without getting upset (and I have to say, I would, too). “This happens in government every single day,” she said. “This is what government does.” Follow the policy, no matter how ridiculous or inhumane.
Gutfeld’s monologue on what the government did here starts at 2:36...
https://www.foxnews.com/video/
On Sunday, J. D. Vance mentioned the story, saying President Trump is “fired up” about the “murder” of the smart little squirrel. “The same government that doesn’t care about hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant criminals coming into our country, doesn’t want us to have pets,” J. D. said. “It’s the craziest thing.”
It has seemed from the start that there must be something even more sinister behind this story. We still don’t know what it is, but when Longo appeared on Friday with Chris Cuomo on NEWSNATION, he said this was “somebody out to get me.” Why would a household be targeted this way? Mark and Daniela had moved from Connecticut to a small town in New York State to start their non-profit animal rescue, which has since saved over 300 animals.
“Peanut is the center of our organization,” he said. “I used his social media to gather the funding to continue to help animals...So I need an explanation of how the state can find the funding to bring this many people to my house to destroy my life but we can’t fix major issues that we’re having in this state.”
It’s true that the Longos have made quite a lot of money with their online ventures, and Mark theorizes that jealousy might have played a role here.
As for the rabies testing, Longo explained that there is supposed to be a quarantine period. Sure enough, according to the CDC, at least dogs, cats and ferrets may undergo “a 10-day observation if euthanasia is not preferred, particularly if there is the possibility to re-home the animal.” (This animal already HAD a home.) With other animals, it depends on “the species, bite circumstances, rabies epidemiology in the area, the animal’s health history and potential rabies exposure.” Again, Peanut was healthy and had lived indoors for seven years.
Longo confirmed that he and his wife had heard about the euthanizing on the news. “Since they left my house,” Longo said, “not a single DEC employee or state official called me to tell me what happened.”
“They got local sheriffs to approve this,” he told Cuomo. “The DA approved this. They had a criminal judge sign a search warrant to come and take these animals.”
Longo just doesn’t believe the story about Peanut biting someone, because “these are professionals who deal with animals on a daily basis.” He saw their protective gloves. So much about this story is wrong.
Note the irony of the word “Freedom” in the name of this animal rescue, P’Nut’s Freedom Farm. When Peanut and Fred were first seized, a GoFundMe account was set up to help with any legal fees needed for recovering them. After they were killed, the account was turned into a fundraiser for the rescue, which had relied on Peanut’s social media presence to raise money. I plan to give, and I hope you will as well. And if you haven’t voted yet, I realize it might sound silly to you for me to ask you to PLEASE VOTE today in Peanut’s name, but it really isn’t.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/
RELATED: Substack writer Tom Knighton is a hunter himself, but he explains why he considers the killing of P’nut to be murder and why this story is about much more than just a pet squirrel. It’s about the unequal application of the law and the fury that results when heartless and unaccountable bureaucrats enforce laws like a hammer on some people while waiving them for others.
https://tomknighton.substack.
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