P'nut the Squirrel's Grieving Family Issues Tearful Statement on TikTok: 'I'm Sad, I'm Disgusted'

The owner of P'nut the Squirrel issued a tearful statement on TikTok on Saturday about the tiny creature's death at the hands of New York State officials.

Mark Longo, accompanied by his wife, sobbed during his prepared remarks about the killing of his beloved best friend.

“I’m angry, I’m sad, I’m disgusted,” Longo said while suppressing his emotions in a clip from a TikTok livestream.
“We fight and work every day to pay our state taxes and they turn around and do this to a family,” Longo said.

New York State and the Department of Environmental Protection have suffered massive public backlash for their actions.

Many of the DEC's social media posts have received hundreds of comments from outraged P'nut the Squirrel supporters.

The animal rescuer also thanked his fans and the public for their “incredible support.” A GoFundMe set up by Longo in P'nut's honor has raised over $73,000.

The couple also say they are inundated with heartfelt messages from supporters.

Longo also said he would continue to post photos and content of P'nut “in his prime.”

Longo told the Post that he felt like a “terrorist” when state authorities came to his home on Wednesday.

DEC agents searched the Pine City property for five hours, leaving Longo and his wife waiting outside the entire time after obtaining a search warrant for the premises.

Longo, 34, said he and his wife were not even allowed to use their own toilets without a police escort during the invasive raid – “who checked the back of the toilet to see if I was hiding anything there.”

The warrant stemmed from anonymous complaints about an animal known to be a carrier of rabies, Fred the raccoon.

On Friday, the DEC announced that it had euthanized both P'nut and Fred to test for rabies.

The ministry claimed in a statement Thursday that P'nut, who was particularly friendly and docile in public throughout his life, had bitten an agent and needed to be tested for rabies.

Longo expressed skepticism about this claim.

“I watched everyone put on gloves before entering my house. They had gloves an eagle could land on,” he told the Post.

He is calling for an investigation into the ministry's motives and actions and is submitting a request to obtain the medical records of the officers at his home to determine whether they have actually tested positive for the very rare disease.