Peanut the Squirrel is back . . . at least in court.
The rodent has achieved fame in the last couple of months, which few animals short of Rin Tin Tin have reached. He is certainly the most famous of his genus since Rocket “Rocky” J. Squirrel. After Mark Longo and Daniela Bittner posted cute pictures of Peanut on social media as their companion and friend, New York officials from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) raided their home on Oct. 30 and seized both Peanut and a raccoon pet named Fred. They proceeded to euthanize both animals. Now the family is lawyering up.
Peanut’s killing outraged the nation and even became part of the presidential campaign as an example of out-of-control bureaucrats and thoughtless enforcement actions. Some defended the action. Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor Jen Rubin even posted that “The Maga squirrel deserved to die.”
Many even joked that Peanut’s ghost taunted Vice President Kamala Harris at her concession speech at Howard University. To protect such families in the future, a new law called the P’Nut Law has been introduced.
Many in the public saw the state’s action as unnecessary and excessive. Longo said he had taken the squirrel in after witnessing Peanut’s mother being hit by a car. When the squirrel refused to return to the wild, they adopted him as a pet in their home in rural Pine City, near the Pennsylvania border.
Peanut then became an internet sensation. Later, an Instagram page dedicated to him gained more than one million followers.
Longo and his wife established the animal sanctuary, called “P’Nut’s Freedom Farm,” last year, inspired by the squirrel.
Peanut even appeared in my torts class this term, posthumously, of course. He was part of a lesson on the classification of wild versus domestic animals for the purpose of animal liability. Domesticated animals like dogs are generally subject to a negligence standard absent a known vicious propensity. Wild animals are subject to a strict liability standard for any bites or injuries.
Even though Peanut was a pet, he was still considered a wild animal in New York, both by statute and common law.
The family, however, still believes that killing Peanut and Fred was unnecessary. They have now filed a notice of claim against the state for violating the couple’s rights by taking the animals, invasion of privacy, and trespass, among other claims.
The state will have the advantage on all of these claims despite the general condemnation for its actions or methods. The state insists that Peanut was killed to test it for rabies after it bit an officer, according to the New York Post. It has also previously stated the policy against such pet ownership on the website of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation:
“Inappropriate care given to young wildlife often results in abnormal attachment to humans. After release, some return to places where people live, only to be attacked by domestic animals or to be hit by cars. Some become nuisances getting into stored food, trash cans or dwellings. And some may be thrust as unwelcome intruders into the home range of another member of their species.”
Under Section 11-0512 of New York’s Environmental Conservation Law,
1. It shall be prohibited for any person to:
a. knowingly possess, harbor, sell, barter, transfer, exchange or import any wild animal for use as a pet in New York state, except as provided in subdivision three of this section; or
b. intentionally release or set at-large any wild animal, authorized by this section for use as a pet, from the location where the animal is permitted to be possessed or harbored.
Section 2 does have exceptions for zoos, research centers, and other categories, but none would fit this family. They would not qualify as a “wildlife sanctuary” under subdivision thirty-two of section 11-0103.
The family is expressing doubts over that account and accusing the government of the “fabrication of evidence.” They note that trained officers should have been able to handle such animals safely and that none of this was necessary in the first place. Nora Constance Marino told Fox
“[i]t appears as though there were multiple constitutional law violations here — or at the very least, there are many questions as to why the government chose the actions that they chose. Entering someone’s house and searching it is such an extreme violation of that person’s right to privacy, and that’s why we have a Fourth Amendment, to protect us from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Likewise, there are many questions as to why Peanut and Fred were killed. There was no reason, whatsoever, to believe that either animal had rabies, and killing the animals was outside the scope of the warrant. My clients have suffered greatly and continue to suffer, from what appears to be egregious government conduct. Government wields great power, and if left unchecked, can have disastrous results for citizens. That’s what makes our United States Constitution so precious, and it needs to be honored.”
I appreciate the effort, but Marino has what Peanut would call a tough nut to crack legally. The state will argue that the housing of wild animals presents a threat to not just the family but any visitors of bites and even disease. The courts will be reluctant to make an exception for individual pets like Peanut.
Marino, however, is wisely focusing on more technical issues on the scope of the warrant and the means used for the seizure. Again, however, there is an ample level of discretion afforded to public officials in carrying out such tasks if the warrant is valid. One question is whether the family can make any proprietary or personal claim to ownership of the squirrel. Most states prohibit the possession of wild animals as pets absent a permit or special status.
Of course, if they can make it through a motion to dismiss, the family might be able to get discovery on what occurred behind the scenes that led up to the killing of both animals. It is not clear why Fred was also euthanized, but the state may claim that it was precautionary given the fear of rabies in Peanut. However, Peanut did not appear to have rabies, and the state law allows for quarantine and observation as an alternative to euthanasia in some circumstances.
Obviously, the cost of litigation is unlikely to be small peanuts. However, there is a GoFundMe site in the memory of Peanut and Fred.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Funny how the State of New York will send the authorities to go get a squirrel that is harming no one, but when it comes to illegal aliens who have committed felony level crimes in the State of New York….well…well….these illegals….are just misunderstood and need to be protected. Perhaps the State of New York should consider treating illegals aliens the same way they do squirrels?
That poor squirrel.
A squirrel is a type of rodent, easily tamed, and easily acclimated to human presence. The wild squirrels at my university would run up the legs of people eating lunch on benches, and grab food as they were eating it. It is so easy to tame a wild squirrel that people across the state of NY have them eating treats in their yards.
Squirrel hunting season is fall through February. If I’m correct, P’Nut was an Eastern Grey Squirrel. You can kill Eastern Grey Squirrels in NY, and only need a license if you use a firearm or crossbow.
Here are the hunting regulations for the Easter Grey Squirrel:
https://govt.westlaw.com/nycrr/Document/I21bf137dc22211ddb7c8fb397c5bd26b?contextData=%28sc.Default%29%2F1000%29&transitionType=Default&bhcp=1
Mark Longo could have shot and eaten P’Nut, but he was prohibited by the state of NY from saving him as a kit.
The law may be to prevent people from taking in rabid wild animals. However, Long had P’Nut for years, long after the quarantine period for rabies. P’Nut would never have bitten a DEC employee if DEC hadn’t seized P’Nut from his home.
The Eastern Grey Squirrel is not endangered, and there was no environmental impact from Long owning a pet squirrel. A squirrel is very rarely a rabies vector. P’Nut was domesticated, and wasn’t living outside, exposed to wild rabid animals.
The very state that euthanized P’Nut to check for rabies, also says this about squirrels:
“Some animals almost never get rabies. These include rabbits and small rodents such as squirrels, chipmunks, rats, mice, guinea pigs, gerbils and hamsters. It is possible for these animals to get rabies, but only in rare circumstances, such as if they are attacked but not killed by a rabid animal.”
https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/rabies/fact_sheet.htm
I don’t know if the oral rabies vaccines sometimes used for raccoons is approved for squirrels. It seems to me that since squirrels can be trapped or hunted, they aren’t endangered, they often and easily acclimate to humans, then they should be allowed to be kept as pets.
Almost no chance the squirrel had rabies and they could’ve observed him anyway.
Rabies is extremely rare in rodents of any kind.
I was told the same by N.Y. Dep of Health…That rodents don’t carry Rabies;
It is likely discovery in trail preparation will be the only way to get to the truth. Government agencies are pointing fingers at each other. It was established that the squirrel would be killed a week before the raid. Why the ruse of a worker being bit?
Gigi: Thx for the Thanksgiving greeting. Back at you. Disappointed I didn’t receive a similar greeting from the usual suspects on this blog. But I understand. Despite their guy winning the election they are full of pathological hate.
Sorry to hear your family is “fractured” by having a MAGA member. But it’s a common problem these days. I have no living family members. My wife has several living siblings but they are all fairly liberal but living in different states. So we can’t celebrate Thanksgiving together. But we are fortunate in other ways. We live on a cul-de-sac with 5 other families. They are as close to “family” as you can get. They are all liberal and we often dine together at each other’s homes. On Halloween we put a firepit in front of our home. Each family brought a dish. We ate and chatted and handed out candy to the kids all dressed up in different costumes. It’s now a tradition. The parents in the neighborhood say their kids like our cul-de-sac because they don’t have to go door-to-door.
In other ways we are blessed. In an emergency our neighbors will be there for us. After the first snow one of our immediate neighbors, who has a snow plow, goes around and plows our driveways. That’s what caring neighbors do for each other. Probably wouldn’t see any of this from neighbors who were MAGA. Judging from some of the comments on this blog they would be too busy spewing out hate and other forms of intolerance.
So glad you had a nice day. Then it’s back to work for us. We are now the “loyal opposition” for the next 4 years–pointing out when the MAGA president steps all over our democratic rights. And we will have our hands full. Thx for joining me in this important work!
“To begin with, Epps is not and never was an FBI informant.”
Bold storytelling, but without proof, it’s just fiction. Facts matter—let’s keep the conversation grounded in evidence.
“Sorry to hear your family is “fractured” by having a MAGA member. ”
For the most part, well-adjusted families remain together through thick and thin. Only Wakefulness upsets the normal family structure, and I feel sorry that yet another generation has to be plagued with families turning on one another. From history, I remember the ‘Woke’ Wilson Administration, where children were asked to turn against their parents and turn them in.
Wokeness is like a living death—the body still functions, but the mind has surrendered its vitality.
Our family is mostly well-adjusted, except for the one MAGA. I am firmly convinced that MAGAism is a form of mental illness–some kind of group delusion. It transcends things like facts, truth and reality–facts cannot penetrate their perception. It’s not possible to have a civil conversation with a MAGA about practically anything because MAGAs live in an alternate reality. They don’t trust even the weatherman, local media, much less mainstream media, and rely on MAGA media for their affirmation. They are chronically angry–just look at the vitriol spewed on this blog–and Trump and MAGA feed this anger because it benefits them. They believe every conspiracy theory there is. Look at the comments on this blog—some of you MAGAs even claim that rabies isn’t real. Many of you MAGAs believe that COVID isn’t real, or that it’s really not worse than the flu, even though it is 10xs more deadly. Some of you believe that the COVID death numbers were falsified, just to make Trump look bad. Some of you believe that Demcrats or the federal government created COVID as some kind o biological weapon to make Trump look bad. Some of you believe that the COVID vaccine alters your DNA, that the vaccine kills more people than the disease and that the government can track you if you’ve been vaccinated–sort of like getting chipped like a dog. These are just a few of the distorted views of reality just on COVID–not counting the lies about things like our booming economy that MAGAs have been convinced is on the brink of a major depression. MAGAs believe that migrants are killing and eating people’s pets, running rampant and committing crimes–even though the vast majority of crimes are committed by native-born American citizens. MAGAs believe Trump’s lies and no amount of facts can shake their beliefs–and, that’s where the delusion comes into play–they can’t perceive facts–you can’t have a rational discussion with someone who can’t accept facts. They pick up on every cutesy abbreviation, like “Russia, Russia, Russia”, and “wokeism”. It’s sad, really, but since there’s no reality to them other than MAGA, they just cause problems and strife, and are best avoided.
“They pick up on every cutesy abbreviation, like “Russia, Russia, Russia”, and “wokeism”
Just like gigi picked up on every new word, idea, or phrase she learned and was impressed with from this blog, like “vitriol” and “supra” and saying “Thank you” to another commenter, and using a colon to address a commenter. We’ve pulled up her old comments from last year for proof….. what a complaining nothing-burger she is.
Tom: knowing that I live rent free in your head brings a smile to my face. How long did you spend reading a years worth of my posts— and what was the zinger you were looking for?
Even ‘living free in your head’ was copy-catted by gigi from another on this blog. And no, we did not read a year’s worth of your posts. We are smarter than you. we just did a word search through your posts, idiot.
Have you shaved your well-adjusted head yet?
“Our family is mostly well-adjusted, except for the one MAGA.”
Gigi, if you are indicative of your family’s mental health status, your family needs a full-time psychiatry department. As a group MAGAs have far better mental health status than the Woke.
“They don’t trust even the weatherman, local media, much less mainstream media, and rely on MAGA media for their affirmation. “
You ought to look again. MSM was proven wrong repeatedly. MAGA knows how to balance their checkbooks, keep their body parts from flying out of control, and refuses to permit a higher authority to tell them how to live or make safe spaces for them.
When you wish to deal with facts, deal with reality, not wrong facts, and spoon-fed to you.
* The woke thing is being run by a band of large scale grafters and their shills. The public are the stooges, mugs, marks because it’s public money and a billion dollars donated by stooges to the Biden Harris campaign was handed off to celebrity shills. They’re on the run. That’s the reason Harris had to step in—> to secure the cash.
Swindlers and people died.
* The woke thing is being run by a band of large scale grafters and their shills. The public are the stooges, mugs, marks because it’s public money and a billion dollars donated by stooges to the Biden Harris campaign was handed off to celebrity shills. They’re on the run. That’s the reason Harris had to step in—> to secure the cash.
Swindlers and people died.
I heard of a case where a couple took in a wild piglet. They raised it and it was treated as a family pet. As in this case, at some point the state claimed it was a wild animal and confiscated and destroyed it. The family sued for damages and the court sided with the family, declaring the animal, having been raised by the family, was no longer a wild animal. I would think P’Nut could similarly be found to be no longer a wild animal.
* What was the reason this family was terrorized?
The New York Democrat Attorney General failed to take out Trump, so she took out innocent Peanut instead.
Just like James Comey’s Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald was supposed to take out Vice President Dick Cheney, and when that failed Comey and Fitzgerald took out innocent Scooter Libby instead.
Peanut joins Scooter Libby in a warning for what happens if you’re in the area and Democrats miss their intended target.
My wife from a previous marriage found a juvenile crow that had been abandoned by its mother. We kept the crow for a time and discovered that what everyone says about crows is true: they are scary intelligent. Unfortunately, the crow labored under some disability that made it difficult to fly any distance. My wife took it to the vet, and the vet immediately euthanized it, much to her horror. She cried all afternoon.
The vet explained that keeping wild animals is against the law, so he had to euthanize it. Being a critter lover, myself, I was disappointed, but I understood the vet’s POV. Domestic animals are bred to have temperaments and habits that comport with domesticity. Wild animals, not so much. Plus, there’s the inevitable risk of exploitation of wild animals.
But it is more complicated sometimes. Elsa the Lion, from the film Born Free, probably lacked the gene necessary for aggression, IMHO. She was unusually tame for a lioness, and when they tried to introduce her into the wild, she did not cope well–contrary to the movie’s ending. She soon died after her release. Animals, like children, should not be pushed beyond their limitations. I would have wanted a sanctuary for Elsa.
Finally (my last crackpot theory for today, I promise), domestic animals breed humans as much as we breed them. We love cats and dogs because they proved a selective advantage for animal lovers. Dogs supported shepherds, etc. and cats eliminated vermin. Those human communities that didn’t appreciate dogs and cats underperformed. The bubonic plague created a lot of cat lovers.
I love cats with a passion. Never knew why. There was no reason whatsoever for that preference. I now believe it’s genetic with me. I carry the gene that cats bred into me. Preferring dogs is probably much the same. My appreciation of cats has spread into a general love of animals. I feel blessed for it.
May Peanut R.I.P.
I understand the cat thingy. Today, I tried to bring Stuart, the stray cat, inside. She cries a lot, although not as much as she did a few weeks ago, when she first appeared. Anyway, attempt #1 did not work out. It will be cold outside toniite, and she has two paces to get on my porch, where there are enclosed spaces for her. Bob, otoh, figured out pretty quickly that the small dog house on the porch, with the heating pad inside, was quite nice, and when I came in from letting Peanut have some outside time on her 30 foot lead, and smoking my pipe, Bob was still inside the house.
So cat-wise, it was a good day. My two kittens went to their new homes this week. One, Cole, the gray tabby, went to be with the lady who took Sebastian a few months ago. She wanted Cole for her 8 year old niece buttttt – I think she is going to end up keeping Cole. After the initial hissy fits, Cole is now playing with Sebastian, and with Jay, the original cat who lived there. Plus, Cole is following her all around the house and being cute and sweet.
Skunk, the other kitten, went to work with my daughter, to go live with the roommate of a girl who adopted Bug from me a few years ago. There are three cats there, and now four counting Skunk. She was a beautiful ragdoll colored kitten, mostly white and cream, with gray ears, feet and face. Everybody at work wanted Skunk, and one lady has already asked for Pickles if I end up croaking before the cats all do. Pickles is the son of Miss Fluffy, who used to be an outside feral, who had four kittens, all of them absolutely gorgeous. Pickles is a ragdoll. It took several years for Miss Fluffy to let me even touch her, but now, we bump heads all the time.
❤️
You’re a hero to me, Floyd 🙂
“I understood the vet’s POV.”
If an appointment was made, rather than your ex-wife just showing up at the office with the bird, the vet had an ethical obligation to inform he of what he would be required to do. Failing to do that would suggest that the vet wanted to euthanize the bird, and was willing to indulge in what is arguably a form of deception to do so. Pretty sleazy, in my opinion.
I know. I try not to think about it. My ex-wife was a walk-in, I’m pretty sure. It was painful for both of us. I never met the vet myself.
P’Nut represented to all of humanity’s the pervasiveness of the Big Boot of government when they become interested in you. The Big Boot Gubmint did not want to chance a trial, so they murdered them. You are next!
Remember Ashli Babbitt
-January 6, 2021
We all know why the State killed P’nut – the animal was an internet star and was making money. The family does not have a legal leg to stand on suing the state, since keeping of wildlife is illegal. But legal standing is not the same as political standing. This lawsuit does make for a publicity platform for Longo if he wants to run for governor in 2026 as a Republican. He might even get campaign help from President Trump. Hochul might be vulnerable, and he should go for it. He needs to get a good running mate to challenge Letitia James as well.
Why did they Kill Peanut? Not because they Should, but because they Could! Why did they euthanize Peanut and Fred, irreversible actions? To make their Point! Prey for Discovery!
Peanutgate irrespective of the legalities of our repressive system, is a symbol of the excesses of government. It is why people take the law into their own hands.