Peanut, who has amassed more than half a million Instagram followers, was euthanized by officials to be tested for rabies.

Peanut, the Instagram-famous squirrel that was seized from its owner’s home Wednesday, has been euthanized by New York state officials.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation took Peanut, as well as a raccoon named Fred, on Wednesday after the agency learned the animals were “sharing a residence with humans, creating the potential for human exposure to rabies," it said in a joint statement with the Chemung County Department of Health.

Both Peanut and Fred were euthanized to test for rabies, the statement said. It was unclear when the animals were euthanized.

  • distantsounds@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    12
    ·
    13 days ago

    I read the article and can’t believe someone could read the same thing and come away thinking, “this guys sucks.”

    • Cypher@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      12 days ago

      You can’t believe people would be angry that someone illegally kept an animal an forced it to perform for his own profit?

      You must be really unfamiliar with the history of animals in circus performances.

      • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        12 days ago

        This would apply to anyone uploading a picture or video of their pet, no? All those pictures of sleeping cats today are coming from people forcing their pets to perform for their own profit. They even came up with a cute name to disguise this disgusting exploitation and indentured servitude: “caturday.”

        It makes me sick.

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          11 days ago

          In general, I would suspect most folks uploading cat pics have their cat legally and hopefully have them vaccinated for rabies. Two pretty big differences lol.

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            11 days ago

            Everyone is really leaning on the legality aspect as if that determines the morality of keeping a squirrel as a pet or posting said pet on social media.

            Also, how is this squirrel going to be infected with rabies after living indoors for 7 years? By everyone’s measure here, every squirrel should be euthanized since any one of them could potentially have rabies at any time under any circumstances, and they all live in close proximity to humans.

            • JackbyDev@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              11 days ago

              Also, how is this squirrel going to be infected with rabies after living indoors for 7 years?

              How does one verify the squirrel was actually inside for 7 years after it bites them?

              • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                11 days ago

                How does one verify that any mammal they come into contact with doesn’t have rabies? Apparently, it’s an epidemic, and anyone and everyone could have it.

                • JackbyDev@programming.dev
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  11 days ago

                  🚩🚩🚩 Penalty! Moving goal posts! Shepard is attempting to change the discussion from being bitten to merely coming in contact with!

                  • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    11 days ago

                    They euthanized the raccoon too, no? It didn’t bite anyone and was merely in contact with humans.

        • its_prolly_fine@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          11 days ago

          He took an animal from the wild. Domesticated animals are different from wild animals. He was also still taking animals from the wild as seen by the most recent racoon he kept as a pet. Wild animals require licenses for a reason.