P’nut the squirrel was negative for rabies, officials say, as owner threatens suit

P’nut, an Instagram-famous squirrel that was seized and euthanized by New York state and entered the political fray before the election, was negative for rabies, state officials said Tuesday.

The squirrel’s owner, Mark Longo, told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Tuesday that he is filing a “very big” lawsuit and demanding answers after his squirrel and raccoon, Fred, were seized in a warrant search and later euthanized.

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Chemung County Executive Chris Moss held a press conference Tuesday showing certificates that both P’nut and Fred tested negative for rabies.

"I realize people want to vent. But at the end of the day I think you have to realize the seriousness of humans contracting rabies," Moss said. "This is protocol from the state turned down to the county."

P’nut bit an environmental officer during a search of Longo’s home, prompting the rabies test. In many cases, animals need to be killed before such a test can be conducted.

The squirrel entered the political world after Donald Trump Jr., the son of President-elect Trump, said at a rally ahead of Election Day that the U.S. government will let in rapists, murderers and criminals across the border but aggressively track down someone with a pet squirrel.

“That is the Democrat party. That’s where they will go. That’s their overreach,” he said.

Vice President-elect JD Vance also spoke about P’nut at the rally, noting Trump was “fired up” about its death.

Longo started a GoFundMe page to memorialize his animals. He says the funds will be donated to P’nuts Freedom Farm, which “rescues and provides care for vulnerable animals.”

“We have murderers and rapists running the streets, and they don’t get investigations like this,” he said Tuesday. “So you used all of our taxpayers’ money and our resources to conjure up a story about a squirrel and a raccoon that was so detrimental to our society that they needed to come and kill them.”