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Netflix’s ‘Wild Babies’ Wins Emmy: A Tribute to Costa Rican Wildlife

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Tuesday, December 19, 2023

In a triumphant victory for the streaming giant Netflix, the documentary “Wild Babies” secured an Emmy Award in the category of “Travel, Adventure, and Nature Program.” The captivating series, produced by Netflix, explores the early lives of various wild animals across 16 countries, with a special focus on the vibrant biodiversity of Costa Rica. Brazilian filmmaker Filipe DeAndrade, the creative force behind “Wild Babies,” chose Costa Rica as a key filming location due to its unique environmental conditions and the palpable pride exhibited by Costa Ricans (Ticos and Ticas) in showcasing their country’s wildlife stories. The documentary offers a rare glimpse into the life of Chico, a playful capuchin monkey from Guanacaste, capturing the essence of Costa Rica’s diverse ecosystems. The Emmy Award ceremony, held on December 16, witnessed Filipe DeAndrade’s elation as he shared a joyous moment on his Instagram account, expressing gratitude to Costa Rica with the caption, “Costa Rica, this is for you.” DeAndrade emphasized Costa Rica’s significance in the documentary, stating, “I work here in Costa Rica because, for me, it is the best place in the world to film animals, because of its culture, conservation projects, and the Ticos and Ticas. It is my favorite country.” “Wild Babies” showcases the early life narratives of various species, including turtles, monkeys, and jaguars. The Costa Rican segment introduces viewers to Chico, the capuchin monkey, known for his love of playful antics. The documentary spans 16 countries, featuring captivating stories such as Tabo, a baby seal in Namibia learning to swim; Kaya, a female lion embarking on a South African desert adventure; and Mantegu, a baby pangolin showcasing defense mechanisms against predators. Other endearing characters include Mina, an orangutan explorer from Indonesia; Quito, a fast-learning baby mongoose; Kesari, an Alaska baby sea otter reluctant to leave its mother’s belly; and Amma, an orphaned macaque navigating social dynamics in Sri Lanka. The post Netflix’s ‘Wild Babies’ Wins Emmy: A Tribute to Costa Rican Wildlife appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

In a triumphant victory for the streaming giant Netflix, the documentary “Wild Babies” secured an Emmy Award in the category of “Travel, Adventure, and Nature Program.” The captivating series, produced by Netflix, explores the early lives of various wild animals across 16 countries, with a special focus on the vibrant biodiversity of Costa Rica. Brazilian […] The post Netflix’s ‘Wild Babies’ Wins Emmy: A Tribute to Costa Rican Wildlife appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

In a triumphant victory for the streaming giant Netflix, the documentary “Wild Babies” secured an Emmy Award in the category of “Travel, Adventure, and Nature Program.” The captivating series, produced by Netflix, explores the early lives of various wild animals across 16 countries, with a special focus on the vibrant biodiversity of Costa Rica.

Brazilian filmmaker Filipe DeAndrade, the creative force behind “Wild Babies,” chose Costa Rica as a key filming location due to its unique environmental conditions and the palpable pride exhibited by Costa Ricans (Ticos and Ticas) in showcasing their country’s wildlife stories. The documentary offers a rare glimpse into the life of Chico, a playful capuchin monkey from Guanacaste, capturing the essence of Costa Rica’s diverse ecosystems.

The Emmy Award ceremony, held on December 16, witnessed Filipe DeAndrade’s elation as he shared a joyous moment on his Instagram account, expressing gratitude to Costa Rica with the caption, “Costa Rica, this is for you.”

DeAndrade emphasized Costa Rica’s significance in the documentary, stating, “I work here in Costa Rica because, for me, it is the best place in the world to film animals, because of its culture, conservation projects, and the Ticos and Ticas. It is my favorite country.”

“Wild Babies” showcases the early life narratives of various species, including turtles, monkeys, and jaguars. The Costa Rican segment introduces viewers to Chico, the capuchin monkey, known for his love of playful antics.

The documentary spans 16 countries, featuring captivating stories such as Tabo, a baby seal in Namibia learning to swim; Kaya, a female lion embarking on a South African desert adventure; and Mantegu, a baby pangolin showcasing defense mechanisms against predators.

Other endearing characters include Mina, an orangutan explorer from Indonesia; Quito, a fast-learning baby mongoose; Kesari, an Alaska baby sea otter reluctant to leave its mother’s belly; and Amma, an orphaned macaque navigating social dynamics in Sri Lanka.

The post Netflix’s ‘Wild Babies’ Wins Emmy: A Tribute to Costa Rican Wildlife appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Thousands of Glendale Unified students ordered to shelter-in-place due to wayward bear cub

Multiple agencies were monitoring an adolescent cub as it sat in a tree in front of Crescenta Valley High School, unable to compel the creature to go home.

When the ranger’s away, the bear cub will play — and the kids will stay locked in school.At least that’s what happened Tuesday in La Crescenta, where multiple law enforcement and wildlife personnel spent the afternoon monitoring a bear cub hanging out in a tree in front of Crescenta Valley High School, powerless to compel the creature to go home.As authorities determined what to do, Glendale Unified School District officials ordered the high school and nearby La Crescenta Elementary to shelter in place.“We want to stress that things are OK, and the situation is actively being monitored,” said district spokesperson Kristine Nam.Classes continued as scheduled on each campus, though students were not allowed to go outside, Nam said. The school issued the shelter-in-place order from 10 a.m. to shortly after noon and then again at 1 p.m.Though the district occasionally sends out warnings about bears and mountain lions, this is the first time Nam said she had seen a bear-induced shelter-in-place order since she joined the district nine years ago.One parent of an elementary school student confirmed to The Times that La Crescenta dismissed students at their regularly scheduled 2:40 p.m. release time, while Crescenta Valley High dismissed students out a back exit.There are about 2,950 students, total, enrolled in the two schools.Nam said she’d received texts from parents who claimed the bear was one of a group seen in the area that included a mama bear and another cub.The cub in the tree, however, was the only one that deputies from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Crescenta Valley station were monitoring.Deputies first received reports at 1 a.m. of a cub around Crescenta Valley High.Lt. Michael Gonzalez said his office contacted a local humane society and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to report the creature.“Unfortunately, we didn’t receive assistance from either,” Gonzalez said. “We don’t have personnel trained for this situation or have equipment to handle or transport animals back to their homes.”Gonzalez said deputies could only respond with lethal force in a life-and-death situation.Nonetheless, he said, deputies were monitoring the bear and would continue to do so.“We hoping that, by nightfall, the bear will move out and back into its habitat,” Gonzalez said. “We’re not allowed to subdue or really do anything to move the bear home.”Steve Gonzalez, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife information officer, lamented that his office’s bear wrangler was sick and that his department did not have on-the-ground personnel to help.The department was attempting to send an environmental scientist to the school to help with the bear’s reunification with its family and eventual return home.Steve Gonzalez confirmed that the bear was not tagged, so the department was not certain of the bear’s exact home, though it’s likely the nearby national forest.“I wouldn’t say this is a highly uncommon occurrence,” the Fish and Wildlife officer said. “In this case, though, we’re deferring to local law enforcement.”

Social Media Star Squirrel Euthanized After Being Taken From Home Tests Negative for Rabies

A pet squirrel who was a social media star before being seized by authorities in upstate New York has tested negative for rabies

Peanut, the social media star squirrel at the center of a national furor after it was seized from its owner in upstate New York and euthanized, has tested negative for rabies, a county official said Tuesday.The state Department of Environmental Conservation took the squirrel and a raccoon named Fred on Oct. 30 from Mark Longo's home and animal sanctuary in rural Pine City, near the Pennsylvania border. The agency said it had received complaints that wildlife was being kept illegally and potentially unsafely, but officials have faced a barrage of criticism for the seizure. Government workers said they have since faced violent threats.The DEC and the Chemung County officials have said the squirrel and raccoon were euthanized so they could be tested for rabies after Peanut bit a DEC worker involved in the investigation.Chemung County Executive Chris Moss said tests on the two animals came back negative during a news conference detailing the county's role in the incident. He said the county worked with the state and followed protocols.Peanut gained tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms in the more than seven years since Longo took him in after seeing his mother get hit by a car in New York City. Longo has said he was in the process of filing paperwork to get Peanut certified as an educational animal when he was seized.Longo on Tuesday said the negative test results were no surprise and criticized the government's actions.“It’s no real big shocker to me, considering I lived with Peanut for seven-and-a-half years and Fred for five months. I’m not foaming at the mouth,” he said. “I knew the test results were going to be negative.”The DEC said in a prepared statement there was an internal investigation and that they were reviewing internal policies and procedures.Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

Can Democrats Keep Young Men From Turning Fascist?

Noted animal mutilator and brain-worm host Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hopes to run the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, or even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the second Trump administration. Not long after Trump’s victory, he started to lay out what the “big role” the president-elect promised him in the White House might entail: taking fluoride out of water supplies; dismantling mandatory vaccination programs; eliminating “entire departments” within the FDA. The Trump campaign reportedly tried to distance itself from him not long afterward.Whether RFK Jr. gets a Cabinet post or not, how such a noted kook became a serious candidate for such positions is something people will likely be pondering for weeks, months, and potentially decades. Some piece of the story is how strongly young men—many of whom frequent the corners of the internet that champion RFK-esque mantras—have swung toward Trump. Fifty-six percent of young men nationwide voted for Biden in 2020. In 2024, 56 percent of them backed Trump. CBS exit polls found that Trump won young men in Pennsylvania by 18 points this year; in 2020, Biden captured the same demographic with a nine-point lead.The Trump campaign seems to have done a decent job selling itself to the so-called manosphere: a sprawling informal online community encompassing a multitude of unrelated podcasts, YouTube channels, and Twitch streams whose content runs the gamut from half-baked, freshman dorm–style philosophical debates and anodyne self-help advice to virulent misogyny and fringe conspiracy theorizing. At its core is an aspirational masculinity loosely grounded in extreme notions of personal responsibility: rising and grinding, maximizing your physical attractiveness (“looksmaxxing”), driving up your own “Sexual Market Value,” etc. As Mother Jones and other outlets have noted, the sheer amount of that content means that young men looking to get in shape or upgrade their wardrobes can quickly get pulled into a bizarre web of right-wing propaganda stylized as lifestyle content.RFK Jr. tried to appeal to these same disaffected young men in his own campaign for president. As Liza Featherstone has written for TNR, his emphasis on physical fitness and the dangers of certain types of environmental pollution—including when appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast—holds some appeal for young men rightfully concerned about their own well-being. While RFK Jr.’s bizarre claims that microplastics are causing people to become trans and nonbinary are obviously wrong and dangerous, Featherstone writes, “it’s legitimate not to want microplastics in your balls, and research does suggest that pesticides, PFAS, and microplastics are bad for people’s endocrine systems.”The predictable irony of all this is that—if he does make it to a top White House post—RFK Jr. will be carrying water for the people responsible for depositing microplastics and all manner of other toxic chemicals into the balls of American men. In September, Trump reportedly offered microplastic-manufacturing oil and gas executives whatever policy changes they wanted in exchange for $1 billion in campaign contributions.And that, as Featherstone suggests, points to a possible opening for Democrats and others on the left: Tackling toxic plastics production head-on could present an inroad to the manosphere and its preoccupations with clean living and virility. Ideally, that’d be part of a deeper project to figure out what ails men. Part of that would necessarily involve building a thriving, independent media ecosystem to counter the one that fuels right-wing and right-wing-adjacent influencers. As Taylor Lorenz argues, the financial incentives that have driven billionaires to invest in eccentric right-leaning podcasts just don’t exist on the left. “Leftist channels do not receive widespread financial backing from billionaires or large institutional donors,” she writes, “primarily because leftist content creators support policies that are completely at odds with what billionaires want.”Taking that project seriously would carry serious political upsides for Democrats; the party faces a real risk of permanently losing young men to some of the darkest corners of the right—and maybe even losing young people altogether. While young people in the U.S. have leaned to the left politically in recent years, buoyed by Bernie Sanders’s Democratic presidential primary campaigns in 2016 and 2020, young people in other countries seem to be moving rightward. In Germany, the far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 16 percent of voters aged 16 to 24 in this year’s European elections—up 11 points from the previous election in 2019. Voters aged 25 to 44 moved toward the AfD, as well. Support for Narendra Modi’s ruling, pogromist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, among voters under 35 in India has been stubbornly consistent since 2019, hovering around 40 percent. Last November, nearly 70 percent of young voters in Argentina backed Javier Milei and his far-right party.Yet the popularity of the manosphere’s most noxious elements might better be understood less as a partisan communications challenge than a symptom of a broader social crisis worth dealing with in its own right. Labor force participation among 25- to 34-year-old men in the U.S. has dropped over the last 20 years, when men under 30 spent an hour more of their waking hours alone than women in the same age range. Those figures have climbed steadily over the last several years, and continued to swell even after Covid-19 lockdowns eased. In 2019, young men spent 5.6 hours alone per day, according to the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, or AESG; in 2023, that had jumped to 6.6 hours per day. Two-thirds of men aged 18 to 30 surveyed by the nonprofit Equimundo reported feeling that “no one really knows me.” Roughly a quarter of unmarried men younger than 30 say they have no close friends.Steve Bannon famously set out to take advantage of that fact and court “rootless white males” into the MAGA orbit. Progressives, by contrast, have barely even attempted to present a positive, fun, even aspirational picture of what it means to be a guy. While the Democratic Party bizarrely decided to embrace an album about being a woman who parties in your thirties, leaning hard on Charli XCX’s endorsement of Kamala as “brat,” its most prominent men are either wholesome Midwestern dads, cringey wife guys, or people who look and act like they play politicians on TV. This isn’t a problem that can be solved exclusively with better messaging, either: Winning young men means embracing policies that actually make their lives better. It’s not a coincidence that the rise of the male loneliness epidemic has coincided with a decline in union density and rising economic instability for young people saddled with student debt, rising rents, and unaffordable health care. Decades of bipartisan divestment from public goods like pools and parks means there are fewer inviting places to meet and hang out with friends—especially if you don’t happen to have a bunch of expendable income. If you’re working two or three jobs to afford car payments and insurance, letting YouTube autoplay might sound more relaxing than driving a half-hour to get a drink with a buddy.The Harris campaign’s strategy of racking up endorsements from liberal celebrities didn’t work out much better than it did for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Going on Joe Rogan probably wouldn’t have saved her campaign, of course. But there’s a lot of work to be done to keep him and those even further to his right from turning a generation of young men into degenerate fascists.

Noted animal mutilator and brain-worm host Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hopes to run the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, or even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the second Trump administration. Not long after Trump’s victory, he started to lay out what the “big role” the president-elect promised him in the White House might entail: taking fluoride out of water supplies; dismantling mandatory vaccination programs; eliminating “entire departments” within the FDA. The Trump campaign reportedly tried to distance itself from him not long afterward.Whether RFK Jr. gets a Cabinet post or not, how such a noted kook became a serious candidate for such positions is something people will likely be pondering for weeks, months, and potentially decades. Some piece of the story is how strongly young men—many of whom frequent the corners of the internet that champion RFK-esque mantras—have swung toward Trump. Fifty-six percent of young men nationwide voted for Biden in 2020. In 2024, 56 percent of them backed Trump. CBS exit polls found that Trump won young men in Pennsylvania by 18 points this year; in 2020, Biden captured the same demographic with a nine-point lead.The Trump campaign seems to have done a decent job selling itself to the so-called manosphere: a sprawling informal online community encompassing a multitude of unrelated podcasts, YouTube channels, and Twitch streams whose content runs the gamut from half-baked, freshman dorm–style philosophical debates and anodyne self-help advice to virulent misogyny and fringe conspiracy theorizing. At its core is an aspirational masculinity loosely grounded in extreme notions of personal responsibility: rising and grinding, maximizing your physical attractiveness (“looksmaxxing”), driving up your own “Sexual Market Value,” etc. As Mother Jones and other outlets have noted, the sheer amount of that content means that young men looking to get in shape or upgrade their wardrobes can quickly get pulled into a bizarre web of right-wing propaganda stylized as lifestyle content.RFK Jr. tried to appeal to these same disaffected young men in his own campaign for president. As Liza Featherstone has written for TNR, his emphasis on physical fitness and the dangers of certain types of environmental pollution—including when appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast—holds some appeal for young men rightfully concerned about their own well-being. While RFK Jr.’s bizarre claims that microplastics are causing people to become trans and nonbinary are obviously wrong and dangerous, Featherstone writes, “it’s legitimate not to want microplastics in your balls, and research does suggest that pesticides, PFAS, and microplastics are bad for people’s endocrine systems.”The predictable irony of all this is that—if he does make it to a top White House post—RFK Jr. will be carrying water for the people responsible for depositing microplastics and all manner of other toxic chemicals into the balls of American men. In September, Trump reportedly offered microplastic-manufacturing oil and gas executives whatever policy changes they wanted in exchange for $1 billion in campaign contributions.And that, as Featherstone suggests, points to a possible opening for Democrats and others on the left: Tackling toxic plastics production head-on could present an inroad to the manosphere and its preoccupations with clean living and virility. Ideally, that’d be part of a deeper project to figure out what ails men. Part of that would necessarily involve building a thriving, independent media ecosystem to counter the one that fuels right-wing and right-wing-adjacent influencers. As Taylor Lorenz argues, the financial incentives that have driven billionaires to invest in eccentric right-leaning podcasts just don’t exist on the left. “Leftist channels do not receive widespread financial backing from billionaires or large institutional donors,” she writes, “primarily because leftist content creators support policies that are completely at odds with what billionaires want.”Taking that project seriously would carry serious political upsides for Democrats; the party faces a real risk of permanently losing young men to some of the darkest corners of the right—and maybe even losing young people altogether. While young people in the U.S. have leaned to the left politically in recent years, buoyed by Bernie Sanders’s Democratic presidential primary campaigns in 2016 and 2020, young people in other countries seem to be moving rightward. In Germany, the far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 16 percent of voters aged 16 to 24 in this year’s European elections—up 11 points from the previous election in 2019. Voters aged 25 to 44 moved toward the AfD, as well. Support for Narendra Modi’s ruling, pogromist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, among voters under 35 in India has been stubbornly consistent since 2019, hovering around 40 percent. Last November, nearly 70 percent of young voters in Argentina backed Javier Milei and his far-right party.Yet the popularity of the manosphere’s most noxious elements might better be understood less as a partisan communications challenge than a symptom of a broader social crisis worth dealing with in its own right. Labor force participation among 25- to 34-year-old men in the U.S. has dropped over the last 20 years, when men under 30 spent an hour more of their waking hours alone than women in the same age range. Those figures have climbed steadily over the last several years, and continued to swell even after Covid-19 lockdowns eased. In 2019, young men spent 5.6 hours alone per day, according to the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, or AESG; in 2023, that had jumped to 6.6 hours per day. Two-thirds of men aged 18 to 30 surveyed by the nonprofit Equimundo reported feeling that “no one really knows me.” Roughly a quarter of unmarried men younger than 30 say they have no close friends.Steve Bannon famously set out to take advantage of that fact and court “rootless white males” into the MAGA orbit. Progressives, by contrast, have barely even attempted to present a positive, fun, even aspirational picture of what it means to be a guy. While the Democratic Party bizarrely decided to embrace an album about being a woman who parties in your thirties, leaning hard on Charli XCX’s endorsement of Kamala as “brat,” its most prominent men are either wholesome Midwestern dads, cringey wife guys, or people who look and act like they play politicians on TV. This isn’t a problem that can be solved exclusively with better messaging, either: Winning young men means embracing policies that actually make their lives better. It’s not a coincidence that the rise of the male loneliness epidemic has coincided with a decline in union density and rising economic instability for young people saddled with student debt, rising rents, and unaffordable health care. Decades of bipartisan divestment from public goods like pools and parks means there are fewer inviting places to meet and hang out with friends—especially if you don’t happen to have a bunch of expendable income. If you’re working two or three jobs to afford car payments and insurance, letting YouTube autoplay might sound more relaxing than driving a half-hour to get a drink with a buddy.The Harris campaign’s strategy of racking up endorsements from liberal celebrities didn’t work out much better than it did for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Going on Joe Rogan probably wouldn’t have saved her campaign, of course. But there’s a lot of work to be done to keep him and those even further to his right from turning a generation of young men into degenerate fascists.

Orphaned Squirrel Who Became Social Media Star Was Euthanized After Being Seized From Home

An orphaned squirrel that became a social media star called Peanut is dead after being seized by New York state from his caretakers' home

PINE CITY, N.Y. (AP) — An orphaned squirrel that became a social media star called Peanut was euthanized after state authorities seized the beloved pet during a raid on his caretaker's home, authorities said Friday.After anonymous complaints, officers from the state Department of Environmental Conservation took the squirrel and a raccoon named Fred from Mark Longo's home near the Pennsylvania border in rural Pine City on Wednesday, Longo said. On Friday, the DEC and Chemung County Department of Health confirmed both animals' fate.“On Oct. 30, DEC seized a raccoon and squirrel sharing a residence with humans, creating the potential for human exposure to rabies. In addition, a person involved with the investigation was bitten by the squirrel. To test for rabies, both animals were euthanized,” the agencies said in a statement, CBS News in New York reported. “The animals are being tested for rabies and anyone who has been in contact with these animals is strongly encouraged to consult their physician.” Neither agency responded to The Associated Press's requests for comment. Peanut amassed tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms during the seven years since Longo, who runs an animal sanctuary, said he took him in after seeing his mother get hit by a car in New York City. Peanut's Instagram account shows the squirrel leaping on to Longo’s shoulder, jumping through a hoop, holding and eating waffles and wearing miniature hats. “It is with profound sorrow that we share the heartbreaking news: on October 30th, the DEC made the devastating decision to euthanize our beloved Peanut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon. Despite our passionate outcry for compassion, the agency chose to ignore our pleas, leaving us in deep shock and grief,” an Instagram post said Friday, accompanied by a video montage of the animals interacting with their smiling caretakers.Longo and his wife, Daniela, opened P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary in April 2023. It now houses about 300 animals including horses, goats and alpacas, Longo said. He said he was in the process of filing paperwork to get Peanut certified as an educational animal when he was seized.Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

Instagram-Famous Squirrel Named Peanut Seized by New York State Authorities

A New York man who turned a rescued squirrel into a social media star called Peanut is pleading with state authorities to return his beloved pet after they seized it during a raid

A New York man who turned a rescued squirrel into a social media star called Peanut is pleading with state authorities to return his beloved pet after they seized it during a raid that also yielded a raccoon named Fred.Multiple anonymous complaints about Peanut — also spelled P'Nut or PNUT — brought at least six officers from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to Mark Longo's home near the Pennsylvania border in rural Pine City on Wednesday, Longo said.“The DEC came to my house and raided my house without a search warrant to find a squirrel!” said Longo, who is 34. “I was treated as if I was a drug dealer and they were going for drugs and guns.”The officers left with Peanut, who amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms during his seven years with Longo. They also took Fred, a more recent addition to the family.A spokesperson for the DEC said in a statement that the agency started an investigation 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.”Longo, who runs an animal refuge inspired by his squirrel buddy called P'Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary, took to Instagram to mourn Peanut's loss.“Well internet, you WON,” Longo posted. “You took one of the most amazing animals away from me because of your selfishness. To the group of people who called DEC, there’s a special place in hell for you.”Longo fears that Peanut has been euthanized. “I don't know if Peanut is alive,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “I don't know where he is.”The DEC spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether Peanut had been euthanized.Longo said he saw Peanut's mother get hit by a car in New York City seven years ago, leaving the tiny squirrel an orphan. Longo brought Peanut home and cared for him for eight months before trying to release the squirrel into the great outdoors. “A day and a half later I found him sitting on my porch missing half of his tail with his bone sticking out,” Longo said.Longo determined that Peanut lacked the survival skills to live in the wild and would remain an indoor squirrel. Soon after Longo posted videos of Peanut playing with his cat, internet fame followed.A scroll through Peanut's Instagram account suggests that this is no ordinary squirrel. Peanut leaps on to Longo's shoulder, he wears a miniature cowboy hat, he eats a waffle while wearing crocheted bunny ears.Over the years Peanut's story has been featured on TV and newspapers including USA Today.Longo, who works as a mechanical engineer, was living in Norwalk, Connecticut, until he decided to move to upstate New York last year to start an animal sanctuary. P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary opened in April 2023 and now houses about 300 animals including horses, goats and alpacas, said Longo, who runs the sanctuary with his wife, Daniela, and other family members.Longo is aware that it's against New York state law to own a wild animal without a license. He said he was in the process of filing paperwork to get Peanut certified as an educational animal.“If we're not following the rules, guide us in the right direction to follow the rules, you know?” Longo said. “Let us know what we need to do to have Peanut in the house and not have to worry about him getting taken.”As for Fred, Longo said he only had the raccoon for a few months and was hoping to rehabilitate the injured creature and release him back to the woods.Longo is not the first animal owner to protest the confiscation of a pet by New York authorities. A Buffalo-area man whose alligator was seized by the DEC in March is suing the agency to get the 750-pound (340-kilogram) reptile back.Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

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