P’nut the squirrel was ratted out by somebody — and his upstate house owners assume it was over jealousy.
Mark and Daniela Longo informed The Submit on Sunday that that they had been cashing in on their furry Web sensation — who helped steer followers to their raunchy OnlyFans web page — earlier than he was seized from their animal sanctuary and euthanized by state environmental officers over rabies fears final week.
The couple’s monetary success, fueled at the least partly by P’nut, could have been sufficient to drive somebody to drop the dime on them — and their fluffy-tailed money cow, they stated.
“Possibly it’s somebody who thinks I exploit this place to make some huge cash,” Mark stated of his rescue farm.
“Did this do wonders to my OnlyFans?” Mark stated of the location, the place P’nut frolicked together with different animals. “Completely. It’s making some huge cash from this.”
The Longos stated they purchased their 350-acre unfold close to Elmira with the $800,000 that they made in a single month posting their porn on-line — and P’nut then started pulling his personal weight together with his separate family-friendly fan base.
“I had my very own type of squirrel dad account, my very own Instagram,” Mark Longo stated. “And it’s me doing my exercises and a number of the instances, you understand, I don’t have time to make [dual] content material like I used to.
“I simply tag my squirrel dad account from the peanut video I posted so it will get double the clip views,” he stated. “Each on occasion, a shirtless picture [on P’nut’s page, too], however I fully separated myself from this whole factor. Clearly, individuals had been going to search out each and attempt to affiliate them.”
The Longos made headlines after the state Division of Environmental Conservation raided their upstate unfold, “P’nuts Freedom Farm,” and grabbed their lovable furry pet and his pal, a raccoon named Fred — with each critters euthanized over rabies issues as a result of they had been in shut contact with people.
Seen by many as victims of an overreaching state authorities, the couple have turn out to be native heroes.
“This morning on the grocery store, I needed to get just a few further copies of The Submit to maintain for myself,” Longo stated, referring to Sunday’s paper with the front-page headline, “Bushy Whacked.”
“Once I walked in, [people] acknowledged my face as a result of I used to be on the quilt of the newspaper. And so they simply type of smiled and nodded.
“Final night time, my spouse and I went out to dinner. We had been having dinner, and the couple subsequent to us appeared over and stated, ‘We’re so sorry for what occurred, and we wish you to know that you’ve got our full assist,’ ” he added. “Everyone was simply noticing, after which they might inform us that you understand they had been sorry about what occurred with P’nut.”
The squirrel’s loss of life sparked a lot outrage that it prompted a state lawmaker to suggest laws to enhance animal-rights statutes, calling the invoice “Peanuts Legislation: Humane Animal Safety Act.”
“What occurred to P’nut was a tragedy,” state Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz stated on X. “As a state lawmaker and an animal rights advocate, this tragedy could be an agent of change.”
The measure would mandate a 72-hour ready interval earlier than an animal from a sanctuary could be put to sleep and creates an enchantment system, whereas giving animal-refuge websites “the suitable to humane due course of.”
P’nut’s loss of life has sparked backlash from different pols, too.
The spokesman for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s reportedly eyeing a run for New York Metropolis mayor, trolled Gov. Kathy Hochul on X over her administration’s dealing with of P’nut
“When nobody is minding the shop & state companies are allowed to behave with impunity, that is how stuff like this occurs,” wrote the rep, Wealthy Azzopardi. “This case ought to have come throughout somebody’s desk in
@GovKathyHochul’s workplace & somebody with a mind ought to have stepped in.
“#Justice4Peanut”
GOP upstate US Rep. Marc Molinaro wrote on-line, “As a pet proprietor I really feel for the Longos and I’m calling for Governor [Kathy] Hochul to concern an official apology for his or her ridiculous overreach.”
A gofundme.com web page for P’nut has raised greater than $132,000.
Neither Hochul’s workplace nor the DEC responded to requests for remark from The Submit on Sunday.
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