Just days before the presidential election, the death of a gray squirrel named Peanut has become a somewhat inexplicable rallying cry for some of the worst people in the country. JD Vance claimed at a rally that Donald Trump was "fired up" about Peanut's death. Elon Musk tweeted an unsettling AI rendering of a red squirrel (a different species) cloaked in Jedi garb with a quote attributed to "Obi PNut Kenobi." On Nov. 2, the House Judiciary GOP tweeted "Justice for Peanut." $PNUT is trending, and I refuse to learn what that means.
If you are a normal person, you might have not heard of Peanut and have no interest in learning who he is, in which case I wish you a peaceful and evolved day. But you are open to a light bit of brain poisoning in the name of knowledge, step inside, and let me explain how the saga of Peanut the Squirrel took over the internet and may or may not influence the 2024 presidential election.
Who was Peanut, and why was he famous?
Peanut was an eastern gray squirrel and an orphan who encountered Mark Longo after his mother was hit by a car in New York City seven years ago, Longo told the Associated Press. Longo took Peanut to his home in the hamlet of Pine City, N.Y., and cared for the squirrel for eight months, at which point he tried to release the animal into the wild. “A day and a half later I found him sitting on my porch missing half of his tail with his bone sticking out,” Longo told the AP.
Longo decided to keep Peanut inside his house and began posting photos of the squirrel from his Instagram, @squirrel_dad_12, which has 106,000 followers, and Peanut's own Instagram, @peanut_the_squirrel12, which has 693,000 followers. The significance of the "12" in both accounts is unclear, but if you have any theories, sound off below. On both accounts, Longo mostly shared videos of him posing with Peanut, who was often perched on his shoulder or wearing tiny hats. Most of these videos were arguably thirst traps, and others were objectively thirst traps. (I am not shaming thirst traps, but this detail becomes relevant later.)
In the spring of 2023, inspired by Peanut, Longo and his wife Daniela opened P'Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary. According to the sanctuary's website, P'Nuts Freedom Farm rescues animals from "dire situations, often involving abuse abandonment, and neglect." Some of the 300-something animals at the sanctuary include alpacas, goats, and Roger, an ex–Amish buggy horse with neurological issues.
What happened to Peanut?
Officers from the state Department of Environmental Conservation arrived at Longo's home on Oct. 30 after receiving "multiple reports from the public about the potentially unsafe housing of wildlife that could carry rabies and the illegal keeping of wildlife as pets," the AP reported. The DEC officers raided Longo's home and took Peanut and Fred, a raccoon that was also living inside Longo's home. During the raid, DEC officials reported that someone was bitten by the squirrel. There are no approved methods to test a living animal for rabies, so both Peanut and Fred were euthanized for testing, according to a DEC statement.
"Despite our passionate outcry for compassion, the agency chose to ignore our pleas, leaving us in deep shock and grief," read the caption on a video posted by @peanut_the_squirrel12, which showed Fred the raccoon eating a Dunkin' pup cup—a rare spotlight for Fred, who spent his days living in the social media shadow of the famous Peanut.
In New York and most other states, it is against the law to own a wild animal without a license. This is a common law, because wild animals are not pets. They have special living requirements and are often difficult to keep healthy and live in captivity, even if raised from infancy, as a wildlife specialist from Utah State University Extension explains here. Wild animals can carry zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted to people and pets. Squirrels, for example, can carry the bubonic plague. Wild animals are not vaccinated or protected against diseases, because unlike actual pets they cannot be taken to a vet, who would be mandated to report illegally held wildlife.
If you come across a wild animal in distress, what you should do is contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitation center, which could potentially release them back into the wild. You should not take that animal into your home, and you should definitely not enroll them in a 90-day TikTok course.
Did Peanut and Fred really have to die? They seemed happy!
Did the DEC need to send six officers to Longo's house to capture Peanut? Probably not. Did Longo need to give an exclusive to the New York Post saying he was treated like "a terrorist" and a "drug dealer"? Probably not.
As the law stands, the moment Longo decided to keep Peanut and not turn the squirrel over to a licensed wildlife rehabber, thus eliminating the possibility that Peanut could be safely returned to the wild, he placed the squirrel under the risk of being seized by the state. One might argue that the average person should not be expected to know their particular state laws of wildlife rehabilitation, and this is fair. But Longo said he was aware that Peanut was an illegal pet and claims he was in the process of filing paperwork to certify Peanut as an educational animal. Why did it take Longo seven years to apply for a license?
Longo is an influencer, presumably one that has reaped the rewards of documenting the life and times of a famous squirrel. Some of these perks, such as nuts from Nuts.com, seem ostensibly for Peanut. Others, however, are for Longo. The two pinned stories on @peanut_the_squirrel12 consist of Peanut's origin story and "New Teeth!", a series of videos of Longo smiling with extremely bright white teeth, all tagging @dentalcentreturkey. And when Fred came along, a raccoon that Longo insists he was rehabilitating after an injury and planned to release back into the wild, Fred became content, too—perhaps even a star-in-the-making, the next Peanut.
It is tragic that Peanut and Fred were euthanized, as they are the real victims of this whole situation. Perhaps the DEC could have pursued another legal option, such as quarantining them at a licensed rehabilitation center. But rabies protocol exists for a reason. Rabies can be spread to people and animals via saliva, and once the virus infects the central nervous system, it is not just lethal, but a horrifying death.
Squirrels almost never get rabies, according to a fact sheet from New York State Department of Health. It seems extremely unlikely that Peanut, a squirrel that lived indoors for the last seven years (with occasional contact with other squirrels), had rabies. If Longo had never posted Peanut to social media, maybe no one would have complained about the squirrel, and Peanut could have lived out his years in the privacy of Longo's home, eating a questionable diet that prominently featured waffles. But rabies occurs most often in wild animals such as raccoons, bats, skunks, and foxes. Keeping a squirrel inside your home is one thing; taking a raccoon to Dunkin' Donuts is another.
Were Peanut and Fred happy at Longo's house? Probably! Both are intelligent mammals with personalities capable of experiencing emotions and pain. But again, neither Peanut nor Fred had any choice when it came to where, and how, they would be able to live their lives. And while Longo initially came from a place of compassion, he holds some responsibility for their fates.
And why did Peanut posthumously become a MAGA mascot?
After the DEC raided his house and killed his two pets, Longo cryptically vowed to the AP that the state would hear from him soon. Soon after on a TMZ Live interview with Daniela, Longo specified he is pursuing legal action. "Not only is it a bad look for the state, it's a bad look for humanity. Like what are we doing? With our resources and our tax dollars, what are we doing?" Longo said. The Longos also launched a petition calling for justice for Peanut and NYSDEC reform and have raised more than $179,000 in a Gofundme honoring Peanut and Fred.
On the internet, conservative pundits took the opportunity to pin Peanut's death on government overreach, and thus on Kamala Harris, in posts unsurprisingly accompanied by horrifying AI slop. And in person at a rally in North Carolina, JD Vance told a North Carolina rally that Trump was "fired up" about Peanut, adding, "He was like, 'You know, is it really the case that the Democrats murdered the Elon Musk of squirrels?'" and leading Musk to tweet AI Peanut slop of his own. Soon, Trump's TikTok account vowed to avenge Peanut at the ballot box on Tuesday. At a Trump rally on Sunday, Marjorie Taylor Greene spewed her usual vile drivel on immigration, only this time she conscripted poor dead Peanut to her cause.
Will the saga of Peanut sway the election? It is impossible to say, but it appears to be a desperate 11th-hour ploy by some on the right. But it should be noted that they are only rallying around Peanut. MAGA has already forgotten about Fred.
Wait, so why do people keep calling Peanut P'Nut, or PNut?
In 2022, after Peanut had amassed legions of fans, Longo created an OnlyFans. His handle is @Squirrel_Daddy and his bio is "Peanut’s dad, VERY kinky player 😈🔥." Perhaps this is what inspired Longo to abbreviate Peanut into P'Nut or PNut. Longo told TMZ that Peanut's fame drove massive traffic to his OnlyFans and suggested the DEC visit may have come from ulterior motives, perhaps from a neighbor unhappy with Longo's side hustle. Did the late Peanut make an appearance in any of Longo's OnlyFans videos? That is a secret for Longo's subscribers, and I am pleased to assure you that no Defector dollars were spent in the making of this blog.
Cool. So why does all this matter again?
Great question; it doesn't. Thanks for reading!
