Peanut the Squirrel's death has shocked many and caused outrage all across the internet. New York officials euthanized the viral animal along with Fred the Raccoon after seizing both from their home. They killed both to test for rabies after the squirrel bit one of the agents during their investigation.
Now, Peanut's owner Mark Longo is theorizing who reported them to authorities, which led to Peanut's and Fred's deaths. Longo explained that he runs a rescue farm but was trying to get the proper paperwork licensed. On the side, however, he also ran a thriving Only Fans page, posting explicit videos of himself and his girlfriend.
Longo felt that this created a bull's eye on the family.
"Maybe it's someone who thinks I use this place to make a lot of money," Mark said. "Did this do wonders to my OnlyFans? Absolutely. It's making a lot of money from this."
In one month, the couple made $800,000 from the site. It's what allowed them to buy their 350-acre home. However, Longo said that he tried to keep his two worlds separate. But that wasn't always possible.
Peanut The Squirrel
"I had my own kind of squirrel dad account, my own Instagram," Mark Longo said. "And it's me doing my workouts and a lot of the times, you know, I don't have time to make [dual] content like I used to.
"I just tag my squirrel dad account from the P'nut video I posted, so it gets double the clip views," he said. "Every once in a while, a shirtless photo [on P'nut's page, too], but I completely separated myself from this entire thing. Obviously, people were going to find both and try to associate them."
Longo said that he's struggling in the wake of what happened to Peanut.
"Last night, my wife and I went out to dinner. We were having dinner, and the couple next to us looked over and said, 'We're so sorry for what happened, and we want you to know that you have our full support,' " he added. "Everybody was just noticing, and then they would tell us that, you know, they were sorry about what happened with P'nut."
It's also drew attention from politicians as well.
"What happened to P'nut was a tragedy," state Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz said on X. "As a state lawmaker and an animal rights advocate, this tragedy can be an agent of change."
