New York resident Mark Longo, 34, had his rural house raided by New York’s Division of Environmental Conservation on Wednesday. Their goal? Peanut, a social media star who additionally occurs to be a squirrel. Officers additionally confiscated a raccoon named Fred from Longo’s house.
On Friday, officers reported that Peanut and the raccoon had been euthanized.
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“On Oct. 30, DEC seized a raccoon and squirrel sharing a residence with people, creating the potential for human publicity to rabies. As well as, an individual concerned with the investigation was bitten by the squirrel. To check for rabies, each animals had been euthanized,” the businesses said in a statement. “The animals are being examined for rabies and anybody who has been in touch with these animals is strongly inspired to seek the advice of their doctor.”
A spokesperson for the DEC mentioned in a press release that the raid got here after the company acquired “a number of studies from the general public concerning the doubtlessly unsafe housing of wildlife that might carry rabies and the unlawful conserving of wildlife as pets.”
Seven years in the past, Longo says he noticed a squirrel get hit by a automobile in New York Metropolis and observed Peanut, whom he presumed was now an orphan. Longo says he took Peanut house, nursed him for eight months, after which launched him to the wild.
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“A day and a half later I discovered him sitting on my porch lacking half of his tail along with his bone protruding,” Longo informed AP Information.
He took the squirrel again in and began an Instagram account that had amassed 534K followers.
“The DEC got here to my home and raided my home with out a search warrant to discover a squirrel!” Longo informed AP News. “I used to be handled as if I used to be a drug vendor they usually had been going for medication and weapons.”
Longo addressed the incident on Instagram.
“Everybody with a pet is in shock proper now that this might occur to them,” he reposted from the Animal Rescue Mission.
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