They got Fred the Raccoon too!

I first reported on this several days ago. I haven't slept more than a few hours each night since. I'm overcome with outrage. It's bad enough the P'Nut was murdered by the state but Fred will never get a chance to break into a garbage can again...because of some over-jealous Nazi NY Bureaucrats. They remind me of Hitler along with that other guy (who's name shan't be uttered).

New York Bureaucrats Get Their Squirrel, P’Nut

State enforcers descend on a home with the pet social-media star.

By The Editorial Board, WSJ

Nov. 3, 2024 4:12 pm ET

New York can’t keep the subways safe, the mentally ill attack random pedestrians on the streets, and the Manhattan district attorney won’t prosecute many nonviolent crimes. But house a pet squirrel, and the state’s bureaucrats will come down on you like you’re a menace to society.

That’s what Mark Longo says happened to him when several government agents descended on his upstate Pine City home on Wednesday in a heavy-handed raid. Mr. Longo and his wife run a nonprofit animal-rescue operation. Two of their animal charges, a raccoon named Fred and a squirrel named P’Nut, were targeted by ever-vigilant agents from the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Health.

“They treated me like I was a terrorist. They treated this raid as if I was a drug dealer. They ransacked my house for five hours,” Mr. Longo told the New York Post. “They asked my wife, who is of German descent, what her immigration status was. They asked if I had cameras in my house. They wouldn’t allow me to go to the bathroom without a police escort, who then checked the back of the toilet to see if I was hiding anything there.”

Mr. Longo told the Post he took in P’Nut seven years ago after the squirrel’s mother was killed. P’Nut has since become something of a star on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Mr. Longo published images of P’Nut behaving more like a domesticated house pet than a rodent in the wild.

The squirrel cops nonetheless took custody of P’Nut and Fred and euthanized them to check for rabies after P’Nut allegedly bit one of the raiding agents on the hand. Mr. Longo told the Post he saw no evidence of the bite and that the agents wore heavy gloves. It is against state law to keep a wild animal in a home without a license, but Mr. Longo said he tried to release P’Nut into the wild only to rescue him after he was attacked by other animals.

The P’Nut incident has exploded on social media as an example of abusive government, and it’s hard to conclude otherwise if Mr. Longo’s account is accurate. The 34-year-old had better watch out now that he’s gone public, because there’s nobody more vengeful than a bureaucracy that’s been embarrassed when its bullying zealotry is exposed.

Too bad for P’Nut he didn’t steal sundries from a drug store. He’d already be back safely at home.