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Woman falsely accused of Squirrel Peanut’s death speaks out

Harry November 5, 2024

A woman on TikTok has spoken out after being blamed for the death of a viral squirrel named Peanut.

Social media star Mark Longo and his pet squirrel Peanut have racked up hundreds of thousands of views on Instagram over seven years. TikTok, and more.

Longo saved the squirrel after its mother was hit by a car. After eight months of care at home, it was released into the wild, but the creature quickly returned home.

On Wednesday, October 30, Longo, Peanut and another animal items in his custody were seized by the New York Department of Environmental Protection. A representative from the DEC said the agency began investigating the ownership of the animals after “numerous reports from the public about unsafe harboring of wild animals that could potentially carry rabies and the illegal keeping of wild animals as pets.”

Under New York state law, residents are not allowed to own wild animals without a license. Longo said he was in the process of obtaining that license when Peanuts was acquired.

Just two days later, the creator announced that Peanut had been euthanized by the DEC so the animal could be tested for rabies. The news quickly spread on social media, and users discovered that a woman named Monica Keasler had reported Longo for allegedly owning Peanuts.

According to various articles, Keasler allegedly published a video on TikTok He said it was his “right” to report Longo to the DEC before making his account private.

Monica Kessler, another woman with a similar name, said she received death threats and other hateful comments from people who thought she was the one who reported Longo to the DEC.

“What’s up TikTok, the most hated girl on the internet,” she said to start the video. “For all the wrong reasons. (I don’t have the same last name) If you open a video and you’re going to make any hateful comments, it takes two seconds to see a lot of people commenting saying that’s not me.”

“No, I had nothing to do with the squirrel. I’ve never reported a squirrel. “I didn’t know anything about Peanut the squirrel until Saturday morning.”

He explained that he received death threats and other hateful comments from people on social media, thinking he was the one who reported Mark Longo to the DEC.

“This is a very sad situation and my heart goes out to them. But it wasn’t me. Did we really think we should handle this situation this way anyway? Sending death threats and hateful comments? And it’s really just stupid comments, by the way,” he said, before addressing the grammar used by people leaving negative statements.

Longo isn’t the only phenomenon caught by authorities while tending to wildlife, either. In October, an Instagram model faced charges of up to $26,000. Feeding a whole rotisserie chicken to an alligator.