Instagram-Famous Peanut the Squirrel and Fred the Raccoon Euthanized by New York Officials

Fans are saying goodbye to Peanut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon.

Two days after the animals’ owner, Mark Longo, said they had been seized by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the agency confirmed to NBC News that the critters had been euthanized to test for rabies.

The animals were taken Oct. 30 after DEC officials learned they were “sharing a residence with humans, creating the potential for human exposure to rabies,” the agency said in a joint statement with the Chemung County Department of Health. The statement also said Peanut bit one of the officials involved in the investigation.

The DEC began looking into the animals’ living situation after it received “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 agency said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Longo, who operates a wildlife shelter called P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary, tearfully reacted to the news on social media alongside his wife, Dani.

“It is with profound sorrow that we share the heartbreaking news,” they wrote on Peanut’s Instagram page Nov. 1. “Despite our passionate outcry for compassion, the agency chose to ignore our pleas, leaving us in deep shock and grief… Their lives were precious, and we refuse to accept this loss in silence.”

He added in a video, “Peanut was the best thing to ever happen to us.”

Longo had been caring for Peanut for seven years, dating back to when he said he saw the squirrel’s mother get hit by a car. Over the years, the duo posted frequent video content online, amassing a social media audience that included over 536,000 followers on Instagram and an additional 424,000 followers on Facebook.

Though Longo told the AP he was aware that owning a wild animal without a license is illegal in New York, he said he was pursuing paperwork to certify Peanut as an “education animal.”

As for Fred, Longo insisted he was merely rehabilitating the raccoon following an injury and planned to release the nocturnal mammal back into the wild, the outlet reported.

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