Ask A Genius 1201: Peanut the Squirrel
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/11/13
Rick Rosner: What’s going on? Let’s talk about Peanut the Squirrel. Have you heard of Peanut the Squirrel?
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: No. What is it?
Rosner: This is the latest weird, but oddly unified, Republican push to make people angry at Democrats. Here’s the story: a guy runs an unlicensed wildlife sanctuary—it’s not a big operation, just a dozen or so animals he’s rescued or that people have brought to him. He has an alpaca, had a raccoon, and this squirrel named Peanut that he raised from a baby. Sometimes baby squirrels fall out of trees or lose their mother, so people take care of them by feeding them with a milk dropper. Squirrels raised this way can’t survive in the wild.
For the past seven years, he’s had Peanut, put little hats on him, made videos, and raised some money for animal care. He’s based in New York State. Then, an anonymous woman named Monica from Texas reported him for keeping unlicensed animals, and the authorities intervened. They confiscated Peanut and a raccoon and euthanized them to test for rabies since there’s no other way to test without examining the brain.
Jacobsen: That’s terrible.
Rosner: There was no reason to suspect these domesticated animals had rabies, so people are outraged about government overreach. The narrative that’s circulating now is, “If you don’t want squirrels killed, you should vote for Trump,” which is a ridiculous way of looking at it.
Jacobsen: That’s absurd.
Rosner: One theory I read suggests that the man running the sanctuary, who is apparently good-looking and was advised to start an OnlyFans account, might have attracted attention for posting spicy pictures of himself and his girlfriend. Some speculate that the “Karen” in Texas, Monica, might have taken offense at those pictures and reported him. We don’t really know. But it shows how petty and bizarre our politics have become—that voting for Trump is being tied to stopping “government overreach” like this.
Jacobsen: What made you bring up Peanut the Squirrel?
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