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 things are often not quite what they seem. The initial story was that the keepers of Fred and Peanut were running an animal shelter, but there is more to it, according to a story in the NY Post this morning. You see, my friends, Peanut and Fred were cash cows for their keepers:

P’nut the Squirrel was ratted out by someone — and his upstate owners think it was over jealousy.

Mark and Daniela Longo told The Post on Sunday that they had been cashing in on their furry internet sensation — who helped steer followers to their raunchy OnlyFans page — before he was seized from their animal sanctuary and euthanized by state environmental officials …