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The local sheriff’s office distanced itself Monday from the killing of an Internet-famous squirrel that has prompted furious online backlash and even bomb threats.
The Chemung County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is an independent agency.
DEC has its own enforcement agents and doesn’t require the local sheriff’s office to conduct investigations, Chemung County Sheriff William Schrom said, according to a report on WETM-TV in Elmira.
The backlash, which included criticism from former President Donald Trump, grew out of a raid last week on the home of Mark Longo, the Chemung County man who turned a rescued squirrel that he named Peanut into a social media star.
Multiple anonymous complaints about Peanut — also spelled P’Nut or PNUT — brought at least six officers from the DEC last week to Mr. Longo’s home near the Pennsylvania border in rural Pine City.
A spokesperson for the DEC said in a statement last week that the agency started an investigation after receiving “multiple reports from the public about the potentially unsafe housing of wildlife that could carry rabies and the illegal keeping of wildlife as pets.”
The officers left with Peanut, who had amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms during his seven years with Mr. Longo, and with Fred, a more recently adopted raccoon.
According to a Friday statement from the DEC, Peanut bit a person involved with the confiscation and Fred also acted against a human.
Both animals were euthanized to test for rabies, as is standard procedure, the agency said.
But days of backlash have ensued.
Eight DEC offices — in Allegany, Bath, Buffalo, Cortland, New Paltz, New York City, Sherburne, Stony Brook, Syracuse and Tarrytown — have received bomb threats in recent days.
The Chemung County Sheriff’s Office said in its statement that it had been receiving a surge of calls regarding the seizure and euthanization of Peanut and Fred.
Monday’s statement was an attempt to clarify its role, or lack thereof, in last week’s events.
SEE ALSO: Peanut the Instagram-famous squirrel is euthanized by N.Y. state authorities after raid
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