The plight of an Instagram-famous pet squirrel that was euthanised by New York wildlife officials has become a campaign talking point two days before the US presidential election.
Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, told a rally that the death of Peanut the squirrel raised questions about government priorities.
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said it had seized the animal because officials were notified of potentially unsafe house housing for the pet.
The agency said it put Peanut down after he bit an official involved in the seizure. The DEC also euthanised a raccoon named Fred that they took from the same property.
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Campaigning in Sanford, North Carolina, on Sunday, Vance said Republican White House nominee Trump was “fired up” about Squirrel’s death.
“The same government that doesn’t care about hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant criminals coming into our country, doesn’t want us to have pets,” the Ohio senator told supporters in North Carolina. “It’s the craziest thing.”
Peanut’s owner, Mark Longo, accuses the agency of using excessive force when they came to his home on 30 October.
On Sunday, he vowed to take legal action in a social media post with the hashtag “Justiceforpeanut”.
A GoFundMe he launched has so far raised $140,000 (£108,000).
Vance is far from the only prominent conservative to view the lovable critter as a martyr of government overreach.
New York congressman Nick Langworthy took to social media over the weekend to express his frustration with the “unannounced raid”.
The Republican lawmaker said the state’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul had “misguided priorities”.
“In New York State, we have sanctuaries for illegal immigrants while innocent pets are killed,” he wrote on social media.
New York DEC officials said they visited Mr Longo’s home on Wednesday after receiving “multiple reports from the public about the potentially unsafe housing of wildlife that could carry rabies and the illegal keeping of wildlife as pets”.
Mr Longo said on his Instagram that there was a “special place in hell” for the DEC.
He had been taking care of Peanut for seven years and the pair’s antics amassed more than half a million followers on Instagram.
This is not the first time pets have featured in the immigration debate this election season.
Earlier this year, Vance and Trump amplified baseless claims that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio town were eating cats.
