By John Di Leonardo
Just days ago, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) raided the home of Mark and Daniela Longo in upstate New York, confiscating and killing a squirrel named P’Nut and a raccoon named Fred at the couple’s misleadingly named “Peanuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary” after the couple failed to obtain the proper permits for keeping the animals captive. Mark was bitten by the squirrel several times and a DEC officer was reportedly bitten during the investigation, leading to the animals being killed for rabies testing. In the leadup to the presidential election, the story has gone viral on the international stage, with President Donald Trump’s campaign, JD Vance, Elon Musk, and conservative television hosts condemning the DEC’s actions as governmental overreach. The deaths of P’Nut and Fred are unquestionably tragic, but as a wildlife rehabilitator, I can say with certainty that the most villainous figures in this whole ordeal don’t belong to the DEC: they are Mark and Daniela Longo themselves.
Long before P’Nut and Fred were exploited as props for this election, Mark and Daniela Longo abducted these animals from the wild and exploited them as props on social media instead of bringing them to licensed wildlife rehabilitators for a chance at a natural life. Dressing them in cowboy hats and feeding them an unnatural diet of whipped cream, the couple amassed a large social media following and millions of dollars while tricking the public into believing that these animals were somehow tame or even domesticated, spurring demand for the illegal wildlife trade. If this wasn’t bad enough, the couple used the animals to direct social media traffic to the adult subscription site OnlyFans where Mark reportedly raked in $800,000 monthly performing sexual acts under the name “Squirrel Daddy”. Since the animals have been killed, the couple has posted a GoFundMe pocketing a quarter of a million dollars more.
Reputable sanctuaries and wildlife rehabilitators know that posting videos of wild animals as pets is not only unethical but illegal, putting a target on the backs of these animals; however, to animal exploiters like Mark and Daniela, the money and notoriety that came with exploiting these animals was worth risking the animals’ lives.
Contrary to the current narrative, government overreach is not a problem when it comes to regulating both the legal and illegal wildlife trade in New York. In fact, scam rescues and pseudo-sanctuaries run rampant, with my organization confiscating hundreds of animals from numerous raids of facilities like this over the past year, including from a veterinarian in Woodbury, NY just last month. Permits to exploit animals are far too easy to obtain and violations rarely result in meaningful penalties to anyone other than the animals themselves.
For this week’s Anuvrat, I invite readers to speak up and correct the record if you hear people defending Mark and Daniela Longo and to always speak up if you see wild animals being exploited on social media or in person. Don’t share videos of wild animals being held captive or performing unnatural acts, and always remember that wild animals belong in the wild. If you believe a wild animal is being exploited, contact Humane Long Island or a local licensed wildlife rescue and ask them to help. The best way to protect animals like P’Nut and Fred is to prevent them from being exploited in the first place.
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John Di Leonardo is the founding director of Humane Long Island. He was previously the Senior Manager of Grassroots Campaigns and Animals in Entertainment Campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). He has a Master's degree in Anthrozoology from Canisius College. He also earned a graduate certificate in Jain Studies from the International School of Jain Studies (ISJS) in India. John can be reached at [email protected]. (Image provided by the author)
