BY: ERIC FIRKEL – OLEAN STAR
When Donald Trump wins on Tuesday it will be for many reasons, but it will be the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that put him over the top.
This story begins seven and a half years ago when Chemung County resident, Mark Longo rescued an orphaned squirrel and named it Peanut. Peanut lived indoors at the Longo’s home and became the world’s most famous squirrel, amassing over half a million followers on Instagram. His videos entertained millions, and Peanut became the cornerstone of Longo’s non-profit animal rescue, “P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary.”
Then last week, acting on the tip of now notorious Karen, Monica Keasler, the New York State DEC obtained a search warrant and raided Longo’s home and animal sanctuary with 10 to 12 armed DEC officers. After five hours of ransacking Longo’s home, the DEC officers located Peanut the Squirrel and Fred the Raccoon. After locating the animals, the DEC killed the animals.
That’s right, a dozen armed officers from a New York State agency called the Department of Environmental Conservation raided an animal sanctuary south of Elmira, New York about 80 miles east of here, then executed two rescue animals.
Was the search warrant legal: Probably. Is it legal to keep wild animals in New York: No. Should it be legal to keep a pet squirrel: Probably. Was this a reasonable exercise of police power: No.
The bottom line is there are two dozen homeless people in Olean tonight and the State of New York wasted tens of thousands of our tax dollars to locate and kill a pet squirrel and a pet raccoon. There are hungry children in New York State and earlier this year the State spent millions to prosecute Donald Trump for charges almost no one cared about and that will likely be dismissed on appeal for because they were filed after the statute of limitations had run.
The DEC’s raid and execution of Peanut exemplifies the governmental overreach, waste and stupidity that will elect Trump on Tuesday. To be fair, Kamala Harris had nothing to do with Peanut and Fred; but she was Border Czar when millions of Venezuelans poured over our southern border from 2021-2023. She was appointed Border Czar in March of 2021 and did not bother to visit the southern border until 2024.
Fair or not, voters see a government that will send a swat team on a tip to a neutralize a squirrel but cannot find the time to arrange a flight for the Vice-President to El Paso, when she has her own plane.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign is running an ad in Michigan calling for an end the war in Gaza. At the same time, she is running an ad in Pennsylvania backing Israel’s absolute right to defend itself. The pandering is so blatant it makes Hillary blush, even with her purse full of hot sauce.
Then last week Trump goes on Joe Rogen and he was normal. JD Vance went on this week and he was even more normal. Kamala Harris refused to travel to Austin to do the podcast. She missed an opportunity to have a an off teleprompter, genuine conversation about herself and her plans for the country.
The reality is not a single democratic voter pulled the lever for Kamala in a primary.Illegal immigrants may or may not be eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. Kamala exaggerated her resume to include a brief stint at McDonald’s. The normally-congenial Joe Biden referred to hundreds of millions of Americans as human garbage in a confused ramble.
There are plenty of reasons to vote against either candidate; but, when Elon Musk declared, “Government overreach kidnapped an orphan squirrel and executed him”, he was not wrong.
This year, it will be the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that causes thousands of swing state voters to pull the lever for Trump and “for Peanut.”
