Justice for P’Nut the Squirrel and Fred the Raccoon!
The 2 furry victims, adored by audiences on-line, had been heartlessly euthanized after the state Division of Environmental Conservation raided the house of their homeowners, Mark and Danelia Longo of Pine Metropolis.
The DEC initially claimed the euthanization was needed — that the panicked P’Nut chomped the finger of an agent through the nutso hours-long raid, and testing for rabies requires decapitation.
However the company plainly spun that tail, er, story, to squeak freed from the loud and swift public backlash.
That account has now proved a fats fib: On Tuesday, The Submit reported that the DEC was already planning on having poor P’Nut and Fred put down earlier than the raid.
Does the company don’t have anything higher to do than ship 10 brokers to chase down critters that appear like Disney supporting characters? Is that this how hard-working New Yorkers need their tax cash spent?
Truth is, the state has been squirrely about the entire incident: The DEC made Submit reporters leap by means of hoops for what ought to have been simply accessible public data, just like the rabies check outcomes, and Gov. Hochul’s workplace declined a number of requests for remark.
Spoiler: When The Submit lastly realized the outcomes (from the county, not the DEC), it turned out P’Nut and Fred had been rabies-free — by no means a hazard within the first place to huge, powerful DEC brokers or anybody else.
So the one rabid characters right here had been the state goons who went dashing into a house with the objective of mercilessly offing two beloved pets — after which lied about it.
P’Nut and Fred’s deaths are tragic for animal-lovers in every single place, however the state’s dishonest dodging and obfuscation is the true scandal.
It’s simply the habits you’d count on from bureaucrats: Overreact, make a multitude after which scurry to cowl it up.
They sometimes get away with it: Will the Legislature even look into this outrage?
If P’Nuts’ killers do go scot-free, depend it as yet one more worth of New York being a one-party state.
