Why Peanut and Fred mattered

Let’s start with the top line story and THEN we will delve deeper.

An orphaned squirrel that became a social media star called Peanut was euthanised after New York authorities seized the beloved pet during a raid on his caretaker’s home, authorities said.

After anonymous complaints, officers from the state’s department of environmental conservation (DEC) took the squirrel called Peanut and a raccoon named Fred from Mark Longo’s home near the Pennsylvania border in rural Pine City on Wednesday, Longo said. On Friday, the DEC and Chemung county department of health confirmed both animals’ fate.

Bastards.

Peanut had amassed tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms during the seven years since Longo, who runs an animal sanctuary, said he took him in after seeing his mother get hit by a car in New York City.

Peanut’s Instagram account shows the squirrel leaping on to Longo’s shoulder, jumping through a hoop, holding and eating waffles and wearing miniature hats.

“It is with profound sorrow that we share the heartbreaking news: on October 30th, the DEC made the devastating decision to euthanize our beloved Peanut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon. Despite our passionate outcry for compassion, the agency chose to ignore our pleas, leaving us in deep shock and grief,”

This is about so much more than the cruel and totally unnecessary death of this little squirrel and raccoon. It’s about how the State can break into a man’s home at the stroke of a judge’s pen, strip him of his rights and treat him like a felon, rifle through his belongings, and murder his pet animals over an anonymous complaint made thousands of miles away because the officers are “just following standard procedure.”

There is zero humanity, zero compassion.

Given the power, they will not stop at killing cute animals.

They will kill us too.