On Wednesday, the New York Department of Environmental Protection raided his country home, Mark Longo, 34. Their goal? Peanuta social media star who also happens to be a squirrel. Officers also confiscated a raccoon named Fred from Longo’s home.
On Friday, authorities said Peanut and the raccoon had been euthanized.
“On October 30, DEC captured a raccoon and a squirrel sharing a residence with humans, which created a risk of exposing humans to rabies. Additionally, a person involved in the investigation was bitten by a squirrel. In order to conduct rabies tests, both animals were tested and euthanized,” the agencies said – wrote in the statement. “The animals are being tested for rabies and we strongly encourage anyone who has had contact with these animals to consult a doctor.”
A DEC spokesman said in a statement that the raid got here after the agency received “quite a few reports from the public about potentially unsafe wildlife enclosures that might transmit rabies and the illegal keeping of untamed animals as pets.”
Longo claims that seven years ago in New York he saw a squirrel hit by a automobile and noticed Peanut, who he believed was now an orphan. Longo claims he took Peanut home, cared for him for eight months, and then released him into the wild.
“A day and a half later I found him sitting on the porch, half his tail missing and a bone sticking out,” Longo told AP News.
He took the squirrel back and began Instagram account who collected 534 thousand followers.
“DEC came to my house and raided my house without a search warrant to find a squirrel!” Longo said AP News. “I was treated as if I was a drug dealer and they were looking for drugs and weapons.”
Longo commented on the incident on Instagram.
“Everyone who has pets is now in shock that something like this could happen to them,” he wrote again from the Animal Rescue Mission.