Fans are heartbroken after viral star Peanut the squirrel has been euthanized.
Peanut was a rescued squirrel owned by Mark Longo, who crated a social media account for his little buddy, who ended up gaining some serious traction online.
Peanut’s account had racked up an impressive 684k followers on Instagram.
Longo found Peanut as a baby that had been orphaned after his mom was hit by a car. He cared for him for eight months before attempting to release him back into the wild.
Speaking in a USA TODAY interview in 2022, Longo said: “I released him in the backyard, and a day and a half later, I found him sitting on my porch, missing half his tail,”
“So here I am, bawling my eyes out… I kind of opened the door, he ran inside and that was the last of Peanut’s wildlife career.”
He quickly became an official part of the family, joining Longo and his cat.
In 2023, Longo decided to star P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary in Pine City. A charity, “haven where neglected and homeless animals receive a second chance at life.”
As described on their website, they currently house 18 horses, a mini horse, four cows, three alpacas, a parrot, a pig and two geese.
Heartbreakingly, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Chemung County Department of Health confirmed that both a squirrel and a racoon, taken from the home on Wednesday, had been euthanized for rabies testing.
This decision followed a prior incident where a person, involved in the seizure, was bitten by a squirrel.
DEC officers arrived at Longo’s home on Wednesday to remove the animals under state regulation.
A statement was released: “Rabies has been documented in raccoons in this area for more than 30 years,”.
Longo released a heartbreaking video where he explained: “It has been a terrible nightmare for me.”
Fans were heartbreaking at the sad news, with some commenting: ‘Heartbroken. We all stand with you to see justice done’ while another wrote; Can’t get over this 💔💔💔💔. This is animal cruelty. Animals are way better than humans. So sorry for your loss. Sending you so much love’.
RIP.
