Recently under fire for kidnapping and murdering Peanut the Squirrel, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation should be more concerned with conserving their reputation. Peanut lived with his owner Mark Longo for seven years prior to his abrupt execution and had no contact with other outdoor animals. However, the reasoning behind his death was: “the potential for human exposure to rabies.” Without any contact to rabid animals, Peanut could not have had the disease, nor could he have transmitted it to humans—invalidating the claim made by the NYSDEC. Moreover, one would think a small squirrel would pose little to no threat, only requiring the efforts of one or two men to subdue. The NYSDEC does not think so. Five agents were sent into Longo’s home to kidnap the poor animal, and five hours were needed to complete the “investigation.” In order to test for rabies, the animal needs to give up a brain sample, leading some to believe that Peanut might have been decapitated as well.
There was a reason behind this ruthless action, however. Owning wild animals as pets requires a license in New York and Mark did not have it. This did warrant a warning, or at most revoking possession of the animals until the paperwork was finished, but it did not constitute the pointless slaughter of Peanut. Lastly, the rabies results came back negative and Peanut died for nothing. Longo plans to sue the NYSDEC and receive justice for the atrocious policies enforced.