The smoggy, litter-swept stretch of the Cross Bronx Expressway leading to the Throgs Neck Bridge is not a place you\u2019d expect to find a police checkpoint for illegal hunting. But each fall it becomes a hot spot for state environmental officers \u2014 some in jungle-green uniforms and Stetson-style hats \u2014 who stop camo-clad hunters on their way home to Long Island, all in search of illicit game.<\/p>\n
Officers check dead deer stashed in the beds of pickup trucks for the proper tags and try to determine if they were illegally hauled over state lines. Firearms must be unloaded and properly stored. Lawbreakers receive a ticket or a summons. On a busy day in 2021, officers with the state\u2019s Department of Environmental Conservation inspected 82 deer and three bears, along with 176 guns.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
These so-called deer checks are a staple of New York\u2019s hunting season, from crowded, six-lane highways to rural stretches of the Adirondacks. Yet last November, there were no checkpoints on the Cross Bronx or many of the other routes where they\u2019re usually found. The reason had little to do with deer, bears or hunting regulations.<\/p>\n
The cause, at least in part, was a famous, cowboy-hat-wearing pet squirrel with hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, according to the environmental conservation officers\u2019 union. Wildlife officers were facing widespread threats after government authorities seized and killed the squirrel less than a week before last year\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n
By now, the basic outlines of Peanut the squirrel\u2019s story are well-known. His capture and subsequent death at the hands of by-the-book government officials kindled the flames of an internet culture war, sparking outrage not just among his animal-loving fans, but within the top echelons of conservative politics and media. Elon Musk weighed in on Joe Rogan\u2019s podcast, calling it \u201cgovernment overreach.\u201d JD Vance spoke about Peanut\u2019s death on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n
The online fervor eventually faded, but its effect on New York\u2019s environmental enforcers remains.<\/p>\n
New York officials seized Mark Longo\u2019s internet-famous pet squirrel Peanut in the final weeks of the 2024 presidential race.<\/p>\n
Mark Longo\/Instagram<\/p>\n
A review of hundreds of documents and voicemails obtained through an open-records request, along with interviews, reveals new details about the backlash to Peanut\u2019s killing. It shows that the state\u2019s Department of Environmental Conservation received a tidal wave of death threats and bomb scares that rattled top officials, according to rank-and-file officers, and had a lasting effect on their ability to enforce the state\u2019s environmental laws.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aWe were essentially handcuffed to do our jobs after that,\u201d said Matthew Krug, vice president of the Police Benevolent Association of New York State.<\/p>\n
DEC officers remain frustrated that their bosses didn\u2019t do more to explain to the public why they seized the squirrel, an explanation that might have helped stem the avalanche of threats that followed, the union representative said. Internal directives show officers now face added layers of review before seeking warrants or seizing illegal wildlife.<\/p>\n
Through a spokesperson, DEC leaders declined to be interviewed for this story. But Krug, whose union represents nearly 300 DEC police officers, said the \u201cpost-Peanut effect\u201d is still felt within the agency.<\/p>\n
Peanut\u2019s humble beginnings<\/p>\n
Mark Longo is a muscular 35-year-old with a sleeve of tattoos and a perpetual 5 o\u2019clock shadow. He tells his dead pet squirrel\u2019s story on Instagram Live almost every day, often broadcasting from a room filled with floor-to-ceiling memorabilia made by fans. (He said he started spelling the squirrel\u2019s name \u201cP\u2019Nut\u201d a few years ago to make it more distinct.)<\/p>\n
Longo said he rescued Peanut from Midtown as a newborn squirrel.<\/p>\n
Mark Longo\/Instagram<\/p>\n
Longo and his wife Daniela Bittner live on a 311-acre farm in Pine City \u2014 a hamlet of about 4,500 people located four hours northwest of Manhattan. P\u2019Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary, as the property is known, is home to more than 300 animals, including horses, ducks, goats, chickens, geese and dogs, many of which are rescues, according to Longo.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aIt’s so crazy to see what the government is capable of doing, and we caught them with their pants down, y’all,\u201d Longo said on Instagram Live in May, soliciting donations for his farm and taking questions from viewers.<\/p>\n
By Longo\u2019s telling, he was living in Connecticut and working for a building inspections company around seven years ago when he came across a baby squirrel in the middle of the street in Midtown. An adult squirrel \u2014 presumably the baby\u2019s mother \u2014 was killed by a car nearby. Longo said he rescued the baby squirrel and named him Peanut. He bottle fed the squirrel for eight months and attempted to release him into the wild. But the rodent returned home with a chunk of its tail missing.<\/p>\n
Longo posted footage of the squirrel playing with Chloe, his cat. Other times, he recorded Peanut nibbling at a waffle, or wearing a tiny cowboy hat while holding a sign with a joke. \u201cPaint me like one of your French squirrels,\u201d one of the signs read. A social media star was born.<\/p>\n
Peanut the squirrel became so popular on social media that Longo opened an animal sanctuary in the rodent\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
Mark Longo\/Instagram<\/p>\n
The squirrel racked up hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and millions of likes on TikTok, getting a huge boost from a 2022 feature \u2013 \u201cGuy and Rescued Squirrel Do Everything Together\u201d \u2013 on the animal-centric online platform The Dodo.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In 2023, Longo bought the farm in rural New York and started a nonprofit animal-rescue organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife and I sat down and said, you know what? We have a squirrel who’s made a really big impact on social media,\u201d Longo said. \u201cHow can we utilize his platform to go out and help advocate for more animals?\u201d<\/p>\n
But Peanut\u2019s rise to fame was complicated by one major issue: It\u2019s illegal to keep a squirrel as a pet in New York. And you need a license if you want to rehab them for release into the wild or keep them for educational purposes.<\/p>\n
Longo didn\u2019t have a license. And he wasn\u2019t exactly keeping a low profile.<\/p>\n
Peanut in the spotlight<\/p>\n
As vice president of his union and an active DEC officer, Krug had firsthand experience with the fallout from the confiscation of the squirrel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe followed the book,\u201d Krug told Gothamist as he recounted the investigative steps involving the rodent. \u201cWe got a warrant. We followed our procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to state documents obtained by Gothamist, officers received complaints in early 2024 alleging Longo was in illegal possession of the squirrel. The complainants pointed to easily obtained evidence: the hugely popular social media videos.<\/p>\n
Longo staged silly skits with Peanut on social media that became hugely popular.<\/p>\n
Mark Longo\/Instagram<\/p>\n
Longo was using Peanut to \u201cgenerate followers to sell their explicit pornography,\u201d the complaint stated. While Longo\u2019s OnlyFans handle \u201cSquirrel_Daddy\u201d notes he\u2019s \u201cPeanut\u2019s dad,\u201d he insists the squirrel never appeared in any explicit content.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet’s face it \u2014 it’s 2025,\u201d Longo told Gothamist. \u201cA large majority of people between 20 and 40 have an OnlyFans page. It’s not illegal, it’s not a secret. \u2026 That\u2019s normal life these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
In May, a DEC officer spoke with Longo by phone about the need for a rehabber license to possess a squirrel, according to the officer\u2019s writeup of the call. Longo told him Peanut was back at his old house in Connecticut.<\/p>\n
But Peanut kept showing up in videos. And when someone wrote in a fresh complaint, the officer politely encouraged the person to give it up.<\/p>\n
No judge \u201cwill give us a search warrant for a squirrel,\u201d the officer wrote in an email to the complainant.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately this isn\u2019t a big crime, it is just a violation,\u201d wrote the officer, whose name was redacted along with the name of the person who filed the complaint. \u201cThere is just nothing more I can do at this point. I am sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The situation changed in July 2024 when Longo introduced a new animal at the freedom farm: a raccoon named Fred, who crawled on Longo\u2019s neck in a TikTok livestream for Peanut\u2019s followers.<\/p>\n
Authorities found Fred the raccoon in a suitcase during the search of Longo\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
NYS DEC<\/p>\n
Like squirrels, it\u2019s illegal to keep raccoons as pets in New York. Unlike squirrels, raccoons are considered a \u201crabies vector species\u201d known to carry the virus, sometimes without exhibiting any symptoms.<\/p>\n
By August, Longo and his wife had passed the state\u2019s wildlife rehabber test, the first step toward getting a license to rehab an animal for release into the wild. But they did not complete a state-mandated interview that\u2019s required before a license is issued, according to the DEC. Plus, a rehabber\u2019s license wouldn\u2019t allow the couple to keep a squirrel as a pet \u2013 or care for a rabies vector species like a raccoon.<\/p>\n
DEC decided it was time to act.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people may or may not know [rabies] is, like, 99.999% fatal in people and animals when they get it,\u201d Krug said. \u201cSo it’s not something that we mess around with in any sort of way.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Oct. 29, DEC officers got a state judge, Richard Rich Jr., to sign a warrant to search Longo\u2019s home for a squirrel, raccoon and \u201cany other unlawfully possessed wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n
They made their move the next day.<\/p>\n
Searched and seized<\/p>\n
When roughly a dozen DEC employees arrived at Longo\u2019s home around 10:35 a.m., he urged his wife to hide Peanut and Fred.<\/p>\n
He told the officers they wouldn\u2019t find any wildlife inside.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aI lied right to their face,\u201d he said. \u201cAnybody in my position would’ve done the same thing. We love our animals unconditionally and you have 12 people in front of you, you have no idea who they are, and they have guns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longo had guns, too.<\/p>\n
An assault-style rifle authorities found at Longo\u2019s home during the search for Peanut and Fred the raccoon.<\/p>\n
NYS DEC<\/p>\n
DEC officers found several firearms in his home, state records show. Krug said an assault-style rifle was on a chair in a dining area, and officers suspected it did not comply with the state\u2019s gun-control laws. DEC photos show the barrel was only 13 inches long, short of the state-mandated 16 inches. Longo put officers in touch with the person he said was the actual owner of the gun, according to state records.<\/p>\n
The officers found Fred the raccoon in an unzipped suitcase inside a bedroom closet.<\/p>\n
Peanut was in a jacuzzi-style bathtub, under a pile of clothes.<\/p>\n
According to an officer’s write up from that day, Longo became “visibly upset” when they found Peanut. Longo said the animal was “a large source of income for the farm,” another officer wrote.<\/p>\n
Longo remembered one officer looking him in the eye and saying: \u201cIt’s a squirrel now. It’s a raccoon. When is that snowball effect going to stop going down the hill?\u201d<\/p>\n
DEC documents show that before the raid, county and state health officials determined it was likely any wildlife living in the home with humans would likely have to be euthanized to test for rabies.<\/p>\n
As a DEC wildlife biologist tried to put Peanut in a crate at Longo\u2019s home, the squirrel\u2019s fate was sealed.<\/p>\n
Peanut bit the worker, leaving \u201ca small wound on her finger,\u201d according to the DEC officers\u2019 writeups of the incident. The biologist wore two sets of protective gloves that showed no visible marks from the attack, according to the documents.<\/p>\n
Longo does not believe Peanut bit the wildlife specialist, citing the lack of bite marks on her gloves.<\/p>\n
After the bite, an officer contacted a county health official to ask whether to go through with the rabies test. The county official said yes. They \u201cdidn\u2019t want to chance it,\u201d one officer wrote.<\/p>\n
An official on the scene took a picture of Peanut inside the crate. The famous critter has his back turned to the camera as a flashlight shined into the cage. It\u2019s the last image of the squirrel alive.<\/p>\n
A rabies report documenting the request for a \u201cdecap\u201d of Peanut after he bit a wildlife biologist at Longo\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
NYS DEC<\/p>\n
Officials requested a \u201cdecap,\u201d or decapitation, to test for rabies. Both Fred and Peanut tested negative.<\/p>\n
Swift backlash<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the group of people who called DEC, there\u2019s a special place in hell for you,\u201d Longo wrote on Instagram<\/a> after the seizures.<\/p>\n National media outlets picked up the story. A GoFundMe page<\/a> for Longo\u2019s farm quickly racked up more than $250,000 in donations<\/p>\n Prominent conservative figures and right-wing outlets latched on to the story in the final weeks of the presidential contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, painting Peanut as a victim of government overreach in a Democratic state.<\/p>\n Elon Musk, a major Trump supporter at the time, spoke about the squirrel on the \u201cJoe Rogan Experience\u201d podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they can do that with your pets, what do you think they can do to you?\u201d Musk asked.<\/p>\n The comments helped fuel a vicious backlash that reached far beyond Peanut\u2019s loyal audience on Instagram and TikTok.<\/p>\n A wave of internet users honed in on a woman named Monica Keasler, a photographer from Texas. They claimed she turned Peanut in to the authorities, fueled by a false accusation in a private Facebook group of squirrel rehabbers<\/a>. At one point, Longo shared her image with Peanut\u2019s followers. But the DEC has no record of Keasler filing a complaint.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t matter. Across the country, photographers named Monica \u2014 including in California, Texas and Ohio \u2014 were flooded with hateful comments and false reviews.<\/p>\n Monica Ann Hector, a Missouri photographer, said she had relied on Facebook to advertise her photography business. Then one day last November, her page was inundated with direct messages and comments falsely accusing her of snitching on Peanut \u2014 an animal she\u2019d never heard of.<\/p>\n These days, she barely uses her Facebook page at all. Anytime she posts, she still gets a wave of Peanut-related comments, some of which she suspects are coming from bots.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has totally ruined my business,\u201d she said, adding she used to shoot 15 to 20 weddings a year. As of this spring, she hadn\u2019t booked any, resulting in a loss of around $25,000.<\/p>\n The Peanut fallout spread to 10 DEC buildings from New York City to Buffalo that received bomb threats. Officials received hundreds of emails and voicemails, some of which contained violent threats against DEC staff members and leaders, including Sean Mahar, the acting commissioner at the time.<\/p>\n Department of Environmental Conservation headquarters in Downtown Albany.<\/p>\n Jon Campbell<\/p>\n One person left a voicemail saying he wanted to see DEC agents \u201claying dead in the f\u2014ing street.\u201d Another vowed to put a \u201cbullet in the back of the head\u201d of two officials, whom he named. Another called for the agents involved in the search to be executed on live television.<\/p>\n It caused a wave of panic and uncertainty within the agency, with its entire workforce \u2014 about 3,000 employees \u2014 permitted to work remotely for a few days.<\/p>\n Police officers provided security to threatened officials, even accompanying them as they dropped off their kids at school.<\/p>\n \u201cJust the sheer amount of threats that were being called in and emailed in \u2014 some weren’t discovered for days or weeks afterwards,\u201d Krug said. \u201cOffices were essentially closed down.\u201d<\/p>\n After Peanut<\/p>\n DEC leadership and Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s office largely remained quiet in the days, weeks and months following Peanut\u2019s seizure. As the public outcry grew, the agency said it was conducting an internal investigation.<\/p>\n On Nov. 3, Mahar issued an internal directive<\/a> requiring that \u201cno search warrants, or planned seizures or other high profile law enforcement initiatives can occur without prior discussion with, and approval from, the DEC interim commissioner and general counsel.\u201d<\/p>\n “We know we can do better moving forward,” DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton said after the Peanut ordeal.<\/p>\n Patrick Dodson\/Gothamist<\/p>\n