Owner of Viral Squirrel P'Nut Detained by ICE for Nearly a Month as Husband Blames a Paperwork Error and DHS Cites an Overstay
A new chapter in the saga of Peanut, the viral pet squirrel euthanized by New York officials two years ago, emerged on November 11 in Pine City, Chemung County, New York. Daniela Bittner, 30, a German native and one of Peanut's owners, has been held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for nearly a month since mid-October and is now housed at an immigration detention facility in Texas, facing possible deportation to Germany. Both the Associated Press and the New York Post reported the detention on November 11: the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrest and said she had overstayed, while her husband, Mark Longo, blamed an immigration paperwork error.
Peanut was an orphaned squirrel adopted by Longo whose antics made him a social media star. According to the Associated Press, in October 2024 New York officials, acting on complaints that the couple were illegally keeping wild animals as pets, seized Peanut and a raccoon; during an inspection Peanut bit the gloved thumb of a wildlife biologist and was euthanized so he could be tested for rabies. The episode drew widespread sympathy at the time, and JD Vance, then a candidate, criticized New York State's response at a campaign rally.
According to the New York Post, on October 16 the couple drove to an airport in Elmira, New York, to fly to a TikTok event, and plainclothes officers took Bittner into custody as they got out of their car. She has since been moved through detention facilities in Syracuse and Buffalo, Louisiana and Texas. Longo told the Post that his wife has no criminal history and that officials had placed her in administrative deportation, which he said would allow the government to remove her without a hearing; that account of the process comes from the husband alone at this stage.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Post that between May 2021 and November 2022 Bittner lawfully entered the country multiple times with permission to stay for a temporary period, said she 'chose to overstay her welcome in defiance of our nation's laws,' and added: 'To be clear, a pending application does not confer legal status in the United States.' Longo told the Associated Press that the couple made a mistake on one of her immigration forms while dealing with the seizure of Peanut and did not catch the error; the couple told the Post that officials had requested more information and later said the application was denied for wrong paperwork, but that they never received the denial letter. 'You know, arrest the people who deserve to be arrested. My wife is not one of them,' Longo told the AP. He said he has spoken about her case with UFC chief Dana White, an ally of President Donald Trump, and that local officials have been looking into it.
The couple runs the nonprofit P'Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary. According to the Post, the sanctuary keeps some 600 animals, including 100 horses. Longo told the AP he will have to shut down the sanctuary if his wife is deported: 'The only outcome that will save this place is my wife not being deported.' As of November 11, neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security had announced a timetable for Bittner's removal.
Source: Associated Press
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：东美松鼠（灰松鼠）资料图，摄于 Pittsburgh（MartinThoma 摄，CC0，经 Wikimedia Commons），已裁为16:9；图中松鼠并非 Peanut 本鼠。/ File photo of an eastern gray squirrel in Pittsburgh (by MartinThoma, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons), cropped to 16:9; the squirrel pictured is not Peanut.
