Tragic twist in Peanut the Squirrel's euthanasia as animal tests negative for rabies
Peanut the Squirrel has tested negative for rabies, weeks after the beloved internet celebrity squirrel was euthanised, sparking global outrage.
The long-awaited rabies test results of Peanut the Squirrel and Fred the Raccoon have revealed a shocking discovery: both animals tested negative for rabies. Chemung County Executive Christopher Moss said at a press conference that the rabies results of both animals were negative.
Social media star Peanut the Squirrel was taken from his New York home by the Department of Environmental Conservation and euthanised after it was suspected that the animal had rabies.
The squirrel's euthanasia sparked public outcry internationally leading up to US Election Day. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was among those who slammed Peanut's death and argued that the fact that the social media famous animal was forcibly euthanised proves that the United States is no longer the “land of the free.”
“The government should leave people and their animals alone. President Donald Trump will save the squirrels. RIP P’Nut," he wrote on X.
Peanut and Fred's owner Mark Longo said that their death “played a part” in Donald Trump's victory as hundreds gathered at a New York bar for a memorial service for the two pets.
"I realise people want to vent. But at the end of the day I think you have to realise the seriousness of humans contracting rabies. This is protocol from the state turned down to the county," Christopher Moss said at a press conference while sharing the test results.
What Peanut's owner said
Mark Longo told NewsNation that a 10-month investigation was started for a squirrel and a racoon while "murderers and rapists run the streets". “I have to live in this state, and these people don’t have the stones to give me a call to say, ‘Hey, I killed your animals, also I cut their heads off, also Peanut doesn’t have rabies,’ like we all knew at the beginning of this story," he said.
(Also read: Peanut the Squirrel's owner says its death ‘played a part’ in Trump's victory)
Why Peanut had to be euthanised
According to US' Centre for Disease Control (CDC), animals that display signs of rabies must be euthanised to collect a specimen which can then be tested for rabies in a laboratory. This is done because the test includes a "full cross-section of tissue from both the brain stem and cerebellum."
So far, there are no approved methods for testing rabies in animals without euthanising them.