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7 hours ago

Mike Cornell here with Quick News of the Weird. It's brought to you by Shingle Restoration Services. For a free estimate call 740-328-9582. A tiny squirrel named Peanut has become a social media sensation ever since he and his raccoon friend named Fred were taken away from their owners and euthanized by authorities in New York state. The story begins 7 years ago when Mark Longo said he saw Peanut's mother get hit by a car in New York City, leaving the little squirrel an orphan. Longo brought Peanut home and cared for him for eight months before trying to release him back into the wild but --after a day and a half on his own-- Peanut showed back up on Longo's porch missing half his tail. Longo determined that Peanut lacked the survival skills to live in the wild and would remain an indoor squirrel. Longo's experience with Peanut inspired him and his wife Daniela, to open up an animal sanctuary that eventually included over 300 animals--including horses, goats and alpacas. But Peanut was the star. Longo posted videos of Peanut...jumping on Longo's shoulder, wearing a miniture cowboy hat and eating a waffle while wearing fake bunny ears. Longo says he knew it's illegal to own a potential rabies carrier indoors and was in the process of filing paperwork to get Peanut certified as an education animal when authorities raided his home and confiscated Peanut and Fred. Longo says that killing the animals wasn't justified. Longo insisted that Peanut had bitten him several times and he didn't get rabies. He was able to raise over 158 thousand dollars online for Justice for Peanut, an effort to reform New York state's procedures for dealing with wild animals. So, I guess this is a story about the mean government going too far and killing a couple of cute animals cared for by a couple who care for lots of other animals. Well hold on. So why did the authorities raid Longo's house? Mark and Daniela speculated that one of their neighbor's alerted officials about the animals because the couple had been using the furry internet sensation---who has his own social media pages---to help steer followers to the couple's raunchy OnlyFans account. Mark and Daniela believe that whoever reported them to authorities may have been jealous of their financial success. After all, they were able to purchase the 350 acres of land for Peanut's Freedom Farm with the 800 thousand dollars they made in one month posting their porn online. I just hope to God one of their postings wasn't untitled “What Peanut Saw.” ... See MoreSee Less