Peanut and Fred: Cash cows for grifters

The story of the squirrel and the raccoon is more complicated than it seems at first glance. Both animals were used to generate money for their keepers.

The story of Peanut and Fred, the squirrel and the raccoon, who were killed by New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, has set the Internet on fire. Many writers here on Substack have railed against the overreach and tyranny of the New York state government, and there has been vast outrage on X, Notes, and other social media platforms.

But t…