When New York State Confiscates and Executes Your Pets
Peanut's Law would reform Department of Environmental Conservation policies after the agency raided a sanctuary to kill rescued animals.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s November 15, 2024. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, news broke that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is conducting an “internal investigation” into its raid on a private home and animal sanctuary in Chemung County, when state and local officials confiscated, and soon after executed, two animals.
In case you missed it, the story of Peanut and Fred, a squirrel and a raccoon, respectively, made headlines late last month once their heartbroken caretakers, the Longos, told their story.
Peanut was rescued by Mark Longo after his mother was killed by a motorist in New York City; he had since lived with the Longos, indoors, for seven years. Peanut was known around the world as the social media ambassador for Peanut’s Freedom Farm, a sanctuary in Pine City. Fred had reportedly arrived only recently, having been dropped at the farm, presumably by a good Samaritan who did not want him to die.
That good deed was not about to go unpunished by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, whose mission apparently involves using anonymized complaints as an excuse to descend upon registered non-profit animal sanctuaries and taking rescued animals by force, while reportedly making a show of said force that Barney Fife might consider a bit much.
Other than emailing a boilerplate statement, DEC ignored about a half-dozen TSNY queries pertaining to the raid. Fortunately the New York Post obtained most of the details we were after, and more besides.
DEC initially said Peanut was put down because he bit an investigator, which dovetailed a little too nicely with the agency narrative, as the raid was supposedly predicated on rabies prevention.
So how did a squirrel bite through PPE designed to protect its wildlife-expert wearer from rabid animals?
The two-part answer is (1) they were not rabid and, (2) Peanut and Fred were nevertheless already dead a week before the raid. From the Post:
“Wildlife cannot be confined like domestic animals, and if there was an exposure, the animals would need to be tested for rabies,” the State Department of Health wrote the county on Oct. 23 — a message that all but sealed the animals’ fates, as rabies tests require decapitation so subjects’ heads can be opened and their brains sampled.
Days later on Oct. 29 the DEC had laid their plans to raid Longo’s home, but the DEC was also already coordinating the animals’ euthanizations with Elmira Animal Control, the county’s timeline shows — directly contradicting their previous explanation that P’Nut had prompted his own euthanization.
It seems, then, that DEC and Chemung County officials have enough unclaimed space on their calendars to conspire to execute a squirrel and frame him for his own death. Though in their defense, once you’ve resolved to raid a household and slaughter the pets peacefully and happily living there, lying about it after the fact could seem negligible by comparison. Only those in the pet slaughtering industry, like DEC and most any animal “shelter” supervised by New York State, would know for sure.
The Post has more details on the DEC’s big small game hunt, each more crapulent than the last. Now let’s talk about that subsequent show of not-remorse.
“An internal investigation into the matter is ongoing,” DEC said in a statement, “and we are reviewing internal policies and procedures to ensure we continue serving this core mission.”
Vague enough for you? DEC is investigating itself, according to DEC. Should be a barn burner, given the agency’s love affair with transparency.
While DEC personnel get to know themselves better, state lawmakers are considering legislation that ideally would inject some humanity into that vaunted “core mission,” whatever it may be.
“I urge you to take immediate action by launching a thorough investigation into the handling of this case and ensuring accountability,” wrote Long Island Assembly Member Jake Blumencranz, to Governor Kathy Hochul. “It is essential that we work together to safeguard both the welfare of animals and the values we hold as a compassionate society.”
Blumencranz is sponsoring Peanut’s Law, which would impose a hold period after DEC confiscates an animal, among other measures intended to protect animals and their caretakers from the agency. The California-based No Kill Advocacy Center applauded the bill while suggesting changes that would make DEC policies less draconian.
“Honestly,” Mark Longo told the Associated Press, “this still kind of feels surreal, that the state that I live in actually targeted me and took two of the most beloved animals on this planet away, didn’t even quarantine them. They took them from my house and just killed them.”
TSNY will continue to follow Peanut’s Law and Albany’s treatment of New Yorkers and their companion animals.
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Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
Elmore SPCA, in Clinton County, is talking with state legislators about concerns with new state animal control facility standards set to take effect next December.
Related: A few million here and there from another state agency that is unserious about animal welfare is not going to cut it.
Related: The Town of Islip is collecting plastic bottles to help fund its animal control operation.
A Westchester County woman has been charged with animal cruelty twice this year for allowing dogs to get deathly ill without medical attention.
Dozens of huskies were rescued from a hoarding situation in Rome; thankfully, authorities say, all appeared to be in good health.
A New Jersey-based self-proclaimed “rescue” is selling sick dogs to people in the tri-state area.
Godspeed Brownie/Zen, who somehow escaped his abusers, NYC ACC and ASPCA.
And finally, do not click unless you have hours to spare.
Adoptables
NYC ACC will hold mobile adoption events in Brooklyn and Manhattan this weekend.
A multi-agency adoption event is happening tomorrow at McKinley Mall in southern Erie County.
Melia and friends have still been at the Hempstead Animal Shelter for far too long.
Chihuahua Belle is one of many dogs available at the Humane Society of New York.
Food recalls
The FDA issued no new pet food recalls this week. Check here for info on earlier recalls.