Peanut The Squirrel's Owners Pursuing Legal Action Over Viral Controversy

TMZ

The owners of Peanut the squirrel are still in an emotional whirlwind after their beloved social media star was seized and euthanized by authorities in New York ... and now they're readying to fight back, TMZ is told.

Transcript

00:00The outpouring support has been unbelievable.

00:07It's been surreal.

00:08It just shows that these animals touched so many people.

00:12And again, it's just it shows how disgraceful this entire situation has been.

00:20Not only is it a bad look for the state, it's a bad look for humanity.

00:23Like what are we doing with our resources and our tax dollars?

00:26What are we doing?

00:28To your point, yes, we're going to be, you know, moving forward with some legal action.

00:33We can't talk much about it right now as we are in the beginning stages of it.

00:37But we will be moving forward.

00:39This is not going to be the last of this.

00:41Peanut did not die in vain.

00:43The fact of the matter is, you know, we were heavily mistreated.

00:48There were so many violated constitutional rights in this situation that it's not even

00:52funny.

00:53But the fact of the matter is, is we did all of this for a squirrel and a raccoon.

00:57It just shows kind of the state of where New York is, where we have so many things to worry

01:02about.

01:03But somehow we had enough manpower and resources to devote it to a squirrel and a raccoon.

01:07So not only are we going to be filing some legal battles, but we also want answers.

01:12The support that we have been getting over the past couple of days has been something

01:15that I'll never forget.

01:17And I haven't stopped crying since, you know, the day happened and a large portion is for

01:22peanut.

01:23But it's also cheers of happiness and joy.

01:25It just proves that, you know, social media can be good at times.

01:29You know, you can bring a lot of joy and a lot of happiness to people who you've never

01:33met before, all because of a little squirrel and how he brought so much happiness to this

01:38world and for it to just be taken away.

01:42For what?

01:43What?

01:44What was the goal?

01:45What was the result here?

01:46We weren't we didn't have a bear.

01:48We moved to a small town in New York.

01:49We're not even from here.

01:50I'm from Connecticut.

01:51I'm from Germany.

01:52We moved to New York state thinking this was to be nothing but sunshine and rainbows.

01:57We moved to a small town that has eighteen hundred people.

01:59We wanted to die here.

02:01And now I'm questioning why I even moved here.

02:03You know, seven years of my life, I had a squirrel, not a single official from any state

02:08that we were in ever, ever reached out to say we were violating something.

02:12Yes, the laws are the laws and paperwork is paperwork.

02:15But again, we didn't house a dragon.

02:18We had a squirrel and a raccoon who apparently bit somebody.

02:21I've had people travel the country and even the world to meet Peanut, and he has never

02:25bitten anybody.

02:27And also as a state official and a police officer, wouldn't your guidelines be to wear

02:30PPE and protective gloves when you're picking up animals that you have never met before?

02:36You're going to explain to me that this animal bit you and because it bit you, we needed

02:40to terminate its life immediately.

02:42When we see cases like this where the animal was housed, it was sanctioned.

02:47It was rehabbed.

02:48It was quarantined.

02:50We didn't get due process whatsoever.

02:52They took our animals.

02:53They ransacked our house and they went and they killed them.

02:55And they didn't give us a statement whatsoever.

02:57The DEC and the state of New York still hasn't contacted us about any of the information

03:01that's happened.

03:02We found out that Peanut died through another news station.

03:05That's how much this New York state believes in their people.

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