A Phil Hall Op-Ed: Do you realize that if Peanut the Squirrel was a member of Tren de Aragua, not only would he be alive today but he’d also be given a housing voucher, free healthcare, free schooling for his children and the mainstream media insisting that he wasn’t engaged in criminal activities?
Of course, I’m being facetious. But the handling of two very different tragedies – a state government agency’s murder of a defenseless animal and the enabling of a Venezuelan crime gang’s presence in the United States – offers a stark contrast of political priorities.
For those who are not aware of the Peanut the Squirrel story, here is a summary. Last Wednesday, six agents from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) showed up unannounced at the animal sanctuary in a tiny upstate New York village run by Mark Longo, a former mechanical engineer. Seven years ago, Longo rescued a baby squirrel from the streets of New York City – the animal’s mother was killed by a car and would have perished without Longo’s intervention. Longo took the squirrel back to his home in Connecticut and nursed it until he felt it was ready to be reintroduced to the wild. But the squirrel had no defensive mechanisms and returned to Longo’s home after being attacked by another animal. Thus, the squirrel was given permanent shelter at Longo’s residence and never went outside again.
Longo named the squirrel Peanut, and the little critter grew into a playful and loving companion. A video of Peanut became a surprise hit online and over the next seven years Longo shared more videos of Peanut, growing an Instagram following of a half-million along with thousands of additional fans via TikTok, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). Peanut’s prominence enabled Longo to successfully fundraise for the creation of a nonprofit animal sanctuary, and he moved to upstate New York to provide shelter for additional animals that suffered from maltreatment and illness. Longo also applied for a permit to present Peanut as an educational animal for teaching children about animal welfare.
Last Wednesday, NYSDEC’s six agents showed up at Longo’s animal sanctuary claiming that the agency received anonymous complaints about Peanut and another animal, an abandoned young raccoon that Longo named Fred who was being nursed back to health. State law said that wild animals cannot be kept as pets – never mind that both animals would face death if thrown into the woods. Both animals were seized – Longo stated the agents ransacked his home for hours and even asked about the immigration status of his German-born wife (which is not the domain of an agency focused on “environmental conservation”). Two days later, Longo learned through media reports that Peanut was euthanized by NYSDEC, which claimed without evidence that he bit an agent and needed to be tested for rabies – ignoring the fact there is no case of any person ever contracting rabies from a squirrel. Fred the raccoon, who didn’t bit anyone, was also killed at the same time, apparently for no reason except that the NYSDEC could do it.
I tried to reach out via X to Sean Mahar, the interim commissioner at NYSDEC, for an explanation of what occurred. Mahar set his X account on “protected” – and so did nearly all the NYSDEC characters who may have played a role in this story. I tried to reach Mahar via LinkedIn, but he shut down that account. (NYSDEC also shut off the comments feature on its LinkedIn posts and took down its YouTube page.) I also sought the input of New York’s Gov. Kathy Hochul – she has yet to say anything about this story, although she had time over the weekend to go on television and declare that anyone who doesn’t vote Democrat tomorrow is “anti-American.”
In fairness, the murder of Peanut is not the only story Hochul wants to ignore. Venezuela’s gift to miscreancy, Tren de Aragua, is staking its claim in New York and Hochul has done nothing to stop them. And if you don’t believe me, listen to The New York Times (which is usually an apologist for Hochul and migrant crime).
Indeed, the migrant crime crisis coupled with the expenses created by housing, feeding and caring for these illegals has turned the Empire State into the Poor Empire State. The New York State Comptroller’s office plans to spend $4.3 billion between State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2022-23 through SFY 2025-26 on illegals – and emergency spending on this population totaled $1.3 billion through Sept. 30. Part of this aid involves free housing and the issuance of housing vouchers – yeah, American citizens are struggling to cover their housing costs, but illegals can waltz over the border and get free shelter. Does anyone in New York State genuinely believe this is acceptable, especially when the Comptroller’s office announced the state “continues to have a structural budget deficit, with a cumulative three-year budget gap of $13.9 billion forecasted by the Division of the Budget”?
Sadly, it feels like New York is turning into Aurora, Colorado, where local leadership (coupled with input by the state’s buffoonish governor) insisted that Tren de Aragua did not take over apartment complexes despite video evidence clearly showing rifle-toting gang members breaking down apartment doors and threatening tenants. Even better, most of the mainstream media – the ones that tilt to the left – are pretending this is not a crisis. Or as ABC News’ Martha Raddatz insisted, it’s only “incidents [that] were limited to a handful of apartment complexes.” Relax, it’s okay – as long as it is just a handful of apartment complexes, Venezuelan crime gangs are an acceptable new normal in our country.
A squirrel and a raccoon living in a private residence get the death penalty, but illegals who commit crimes get a pass? Seriously, what’s wrong with this picture?
As a reminder, this is strictly my opinion, hence the “Phil Hall Op-Ed” title. You are welcome to disagree – and contrary to Hochul, I don’t think you’re anti-American if you disagree with me.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News.
Photo courtesy of Mark Longo
;
Vote Blue on Tuesday New Yorkers.
Are you insane? Or you don’t understand what you read?
ALL the current problems in New York and America are from the Blue team.
🎯🎯🎯
VOTE TRUMP !
Sarcasm.
SHAME,SHAME,SHAME On those governmental officials that WE THE PEOPLE! entrusted our rights of life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness to. They all need to go!!!! Vote them all back to where they came from!
I agree with all of this article!
Thanks for bringing this to light. If we don’t speak out they’ll continue until we loose all our rights
Vote blue, cuz Dems support: kill Peanut, you’re not supposed to have a wild animal as a pet. Protect criminal, violent ILLEGAL aliens, they’re here to make a better life.
Please read the whole story Jay. The owners were in the process of getting the permits!
The NYCDEC actually went to their home, broke down their front door, like they were SWAT, trashed the house like they were drug dealers or worse, broke their toilet and told the wife if she wanted to go to the bathroom, someone would be there with her!
This WAS ABOVE OVER-KILL!!!
I submitted a comment a few days ago. I can’t believe the a**h*** jerks would knock the door down, scare the daylights out of the guys wife and then arrest Peanut and the poor racoon to put them to sleep. What a violation of peoples rights and animal rights, What the hell is wrong with the authorities? Can’t they put their efforts to things that are wrong. Fricken creeps. We should start a movement to Euthanize them. I just can’t believe some of the s*** I read now adays.
AMEN. The Democrat party is pure evil, killing anything and everything it wants to. The party will kill the useful idiots when the time comes. The democrat party is Marxism, assassination, abortion, murder, genital mutilation, pedophilia, hate, corruption, war, death, poverty, pain, suffering, ghettoes, violence, anger…just pure evil. They will kill children, presidents, pets and YOU when they want to. Americans need to stand up to Democrats everywhere like it’s 1865 again.
Do you think after today we can get back to reporting real estate instead of politics? After all you are the Weekly REAL ESTATE News not the Weekly Political Report. Look at the comments, you are just promoting angry rhetoric. This isn’t the place for political views. As Realtors we need to work together to make out industry better and work on problems like the NAR settlement has brought not jab at each other over politics. As a business owner I keep politics out of it as I require my agents to do. You should keep your political opinions to yourself Phil Hall and start giving us information we can use in our industry.
Amen
I would agree with you, but damn, the policies of the current administration are the reasons we are talking politics on a RE page. IDK about you, but most of my buyers are first timers. Those buyers have no pathway to home ownership at this time. They can afford the house OR the interest, not both. The only way to stop that cycle is a change at the top.
When DC is running right, they have minimal input on your daily life. And when they aren’t, we have the shitshow we have now. If one looks at the issues, I do not see how any RE professional could vote for the incumbent.
Give it a break, man. I mourn the animals. Tren de Aragua is a police matter, wherever they are. The two aren’t connected in any way and trying to connect the tragedy of NY’s mishandling of the way NY treated Longo to the migrant crisis is, at best, a stretch.
This pertains to Real Estate as “A man’s home is his castle,” or at least it’s supposed to be. It’s frightening that authorities can just bust in and remove pets without any forewarning or opportunity to correct the alleged infraction. Can they send the housing cops to do the same if you violated a real estate rule? You Betcha. Vote for Trump to put an end to these regulations and government overreach before it’s too late. They have already messed up our business enough with the recent commission lawsuit.