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
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    2 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
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      2 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
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        2 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
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          9 hours 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
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            3 hours 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
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              2 hours 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
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                1 hour 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.

        • its_prolly_fine@sh.itjust.works
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          19 hours 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.