How One Squirrel United a Nation Against Injustice | Mark Longo

Summary

Digital Social Hour Podcast Summary Episode: How One Squirrel United a Nation Against Injustice | Mark Longo
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Mark Longo
Release Date: December 8, 2024

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Introduction

In this emotionally charged episode of the Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly delves into a harrowing story of government overreach and personal tragedy with guest Mark Longo. Mark shares his experience of how a beloved squirrel named Peanut became the unlikely catalyst for a national conversation on animal rights and governmental abuse. This summary captures the essence of their in-depth discussion, highlighting key moments, poignant quotes, and the broader implications of Mark's story.

The Unfolding of Government Raid

Mark Longo recounts the surreal and traumatic event when nine armed officers arrived at his home to seize two animals—a squirrel named Peanut and a raccoon named Fred. The raid was not only aggressive but also occurred just three days before an election, adding a cinematic twist to the ordeal.

• Mark Longo [01:37]:
  "It's like a movie. Your government just comes in and it's surreal. Nine people with weapons show up at your house for two small animals."

Mark emphasizes the brutality and unexpected nature of the raid, highlighting that he and his family had no prior legal issues or criminal activity that would warrant such an aggressive action.

• Mark Longo [03:06]:
  "You're like, you never gotten in trouble before, you've been involved with any criminal activity and now you're being treated like you're, you're a drug dealer."

Media and Public Reaction

The incident quickly gained widespread media attention, uniting people across political spectrums in outrage. Mark notes how public support surged, with a significant majority of people standing by his side.

• Mark Longo [02:44]:
  "This was a target, man. This wasn't about two animals. This was an agenda."

The coordinated media attack included unfounded claims about rabies concerns, which Mark strongly refutes. He argues that the investigation was a pretext for silencing his animal rescue efforts.

• Mark Longo [05:33]:
  "You took two animals and didn't even do your own data. Like, New York State has its own data on rabies, and you picked a squirrel who has never, ever. Squirrels never have had any case of rabies in the United States alone..."

Impact on Personal and Professional Life

The raid resulted in the destruction of Mark's property, including significant damage to his bathroom and closets, and the tragic loss of Peanut and Fred. Beyond the immediate physical damages, Mark faced severe personal and reputational setbacks, including false accusations related to his involvement in cryptocurrency schemes.

• Mark Longo [10:37]:
  "Nobody comes here to look at me. You might hear my voice, but you're looking at the squirrel wearing a cowboy hat or Santa Claus hat. You know, you're not here for me."

Community Support and Legacy of Peanut

Peanut transcended his role as just a pet; he became a symbol of love, joy, and resilience. Mark shares how Peanut's social media presence brought global attention, fostered community engagement, and even provided solace to individuals struggling with mental health issues.

• Mark Longo [08:11]:
  "It wasn't just a positive movement. It was, you know, if you need help, never be silent or we're here for you."

Peanut's legacy inspired Mark and his wife to establish Peanuts Freedom Farm, a sanctuary dedicated to rescuing animals and supporting the community. The sanctuary became a beacon of hope, but the raid jeopardized their mission.

Legal Battles and Ongoing Struggles

Mark details the legal challenges he faced post-raid, including struggles to obtain information about the raid, accusations of misconduct, and the battle to clear his name. Despite these hurdles, Mark remains steadfast in his fight for justice, aiming to highlight broader issues of government overreach and animal rights.

• Mark Longo [26:54]:
  "Under the Animal Cruelty Act, you killed a companion animal under the Animal Cruelty Act."

Broader Implications and Call to Action

The episode underscores the need for systemic reform and greater accountability within governmental agencies. Mark urges listeners to support local farms and sanctuaries, advocate for animal rights, and stand against unjust governmental actions.

• Mark Longo [29:07]:
  "You have to provide the food and the care that it needs. But when you can't do that and you're doing this vicious cycle of running them to the ground and then selling them, you know, something has to change."

Conclusion and Moving Forward

Despite the immense challenges, Mark refuses to abandon his mission. He envisions expanding Peanuts Freedom Farm to support not only animals but also veterans, children, and low-income families. The story of Peanut and the ensuing injustice serves as a rallying cry for community solidarity and advocacy against systemic abuse.

• Mark Longo [33:12]:
  "I'm here fighting for the story. I'm here fighting for justice. I'm here fighting for the common person who got ripped out of their car, right. Got their dog killed. You know, those are the people we're fighting for because they didn't have a voice that Peanut did."

Notable Quotes

• Mark Longo [02:44]:
  "This was a target, man. This wasn't about two animals. This was an agenda."

• Mark Longo [05:33]:
  "You took two animals and didn't even do your own data."

• Mark Longo [26:54]:
  "Under the Animal Cruelty Act, you killed a companion animal under the Animal Cruelty Act."

• Mark Longo [33:12]:
  "I'm here fighting for the story. I'm here fighting for justice."

Final Thoughts

Mark Longo's poignant narrative not only sheds light on his personal ordeal but also ignites a broader conversation about animal rights, governmental accountability, and the power of community support. This episode of Digital Social Hour serves as an inspiring testament to resilience and the enduring fight for justice.

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Stay Connected:
Follow Mark Longo and support Peanuts Freedom Farm through their social media channels and website.

Join the Conversation:
Share your thoughts and support on social platforms using the hashtag #JusticeForPeanut.

Transcript

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[Mark Longo]

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[Sean]

You are uniting Democrats and Republicans. Like everyone, that was the craziest part.

[Mark Longo]

Is the way this transpired and the timing of it. It's like a movie. Your government just comes in and it's surreal. You know, nine people with weapons show up at your house for two small animals. You never gotten in trouble before. You never been involved with any criminal activity, and now you're being treated like you're. You're a drug dealer.

[Sean]

All right, guys, really excited for this one today to get Mark's side of the story because the PR has been crazy on this, man. Thanks for coming on.

[Mark Longo]

I appreciate it, Sean. It really, really means a lot. Absolutely.

[Sean]

How did you feel seeing all those articles coming out?

[Mark Longo]

You know, it was. We didn't want this story to go away. You know, it was a tragedy. It was government overreach. It was basically another day in the office for these guys. But when they came here, we made sure that the world saw this and the world came together for it. And, you know, usually you kind of see the table of the shift, right? You always have the people that disagree and the people that agree. When he came to this one. It was like a 95 to 5 percenter. And you know, you have the biggest people around the world going, what the hell happened here?

[Sean]

Right.

[Mark Longo]

So that was the biggest part of just trying to get this story out.

[Sean]

You were uniting Democrats and Republicans, like everyone.

[Mark Longo]

Right. It was, that was the craziest part is the way this transpired and the timing of it was. It's like a movie. It's three days before election and your government just comes in and it's surreal. Nine people with weapons show up at your house for two small animals.

[Sean]

Crazy.

[Mark Longo]

You're like, you never gotten in trouble before, you've been involved with any criminal activity and now you're being treated like you're, you're a drug dealer. You know, it's something I'll never forget.

[Sean]

I bet. So nine people. Which agency was that?

[Mark Longo]

This was the dec, the Department of Health, the Chemung county of New York City in New York State. You know, there's a lot of agencies involved in this. It wasn't even just one.

[Sean]

Geez. They were all working together. They show up with a search warrant. Right, Right.

[Mark Longo]

They did a 10 month investigation on squirrel and raccoon.

[Sean]

And was that before the search warrant?

[Mark Longo]

That was before the search warrant.

[Sean]

Oh, so you were aware there was an investigation going on?

[Mark Longo]

I wasn't.

[Sean]

Oh, you weren't.

[Mark Longo]

The more that this unfolded, the more people were like, oh, we saw DEC officers drive by your farm and take photos. And then it started to unravel. And then they came out and made a statement saying they started this investigation in January. Wow. And you're like, they even came as far as the raid was the 30th. They came out on a statement on TV and said they were going to kill the animals on the 22nd. What, eight days before the search and seizure. They, they came out and made a statement of the timeline of how things transpired. And one of the agencies called the Department of Health to get the protocol on Euthanasian. So it was just like this was a target, man. This wasn't about two animals. This was an agenda. And this was another day in the office for these guys.

[Sean]

That is not. So it was planned out.

[Mark Longo]

Oh yeah.

[Sean]

You really couldn't do much at that point.

[Mark Longo]

At that point, five hours of being detained in your own house. You know, you're in the corner of your driveway, you're being asked if there's cameras in your house. My wife's German. They asked her immigration status. As if that was relevant to anything.

[Sean]

That is nuts. Did they take the camera Footage.

[Mark Longo]

We didn't have cameras in the house, and they weren't wearing body cams. So, you know, then you park me in the corner of my own house to the point where I ask, go to the bathroom. An officer took me to my own bathroom, took apart the toilet before I went to the bathroom. You're here for a squirrel and raccoon. Why are you inspecting my toilet before I take a leak? Wow. You know, there's so much to this story that the world didn't see. And this is all about the justification of killing two animals. But if you look at the bigger picture here, this is human rights, this is animal rights, and this is what needs to stop. This can't happen again. And that's what our fight is all about now.

[Sean]

Absolutely. Yeah. They did that. And then the coordinated media attack with the rabies stuff seemed very planned out.

[Mark Longo]

Oh, yeah. You know, and it wasn't. Again, I don't mean to disrespect them at all. You know, these are people that have families and stuff. But you got caught, and then you fabricated a story that was such a lie that people didn't even bat an eye when you said it. You know, you took two animals and didn't even do your own data. Like, New York State has its own data on rabies, and you picked a squirrel who has never, ever. Squirrels never have had any case of rabies in the United States alone, let alone New York State. You know, and there's 35 cases of raccoons in the last, you know, almost 20 years. And peanut was a famous squirrel. Like, just something that could not live in his natural habitat. Right. He. I found him as a young, young squirrel. He was five weeks old. We rehabbed him. We put him back outside. He ended up getting attacked, lost half of his tail, became an indoor squirrel who best friend was a cat. Like, I had a Tom and Jerry in my house. It was the coolest thing in the planet. And, you know, it was something that was like.

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[Mark Longo]

The Internet needs to see this, right? This wasn't like, people call me the Squirrel Dad. If I walked up to you, Sean was like, my name is Mark, AKA the Squirrel Dad. You laugh at my face. This isn't like, oh, I'm flexing some clout here. You walk down the street and he's like, hey, squirrel Daddy. It's not something to be. I'm proud of Peanut. But I wasn't sitting here trying to flaunt the scroll dad effect. It was just something cool to be in the background of a unique animal like a squirrel using a litter box and dressing up as cowboy. You know, if that doesn't make you smile, I don't know if you have a heart. I mean, that was the whole premise of this entire thing, this whole social media thing was to just go, hey, you know, this might be a unique animal, might just be a fluffy tree rat, but, you know, everybody needs love. And this was a prime example of just love and joy in an animal. And we loved sharing it. You know, kids loved him, families loved him. We've had people travel the world to meet him. Wow. Like, people from England travel to New York.

[Sean]

He was world renowned.

[Mark Longo]

Yep. He was deemed the world's most famous squirrel. Like, he did interviews from around the world. We've had news, you know, the documentaries about him. He's been on peanut butter labels. Like, the dude was more successful than me, you know, and it was. It was awesome. Like, I took a backseat to something really cool. And I was just a proud, you know, person to be a part of it. And, you know, the best part about it was, you know, reading those comments, reading those DMs of how peanut changed our life. Wow. You know, we had, you know, we had a person who was like, listen, I was a couple days away from, you know, ending myself, and I came across your page, and I was like, dude, here's my number. If you ever feel like that ever again, I'll send you whatever you need. Just, you know, you're not fighting alone. Like, there's a lot of us who have mental health. I have it. I have really bad anxiety, and I used animals to help combat that, you know, so it wasn't just a positive movement. It was, you know, if you need help, never be silent or we're here for you. So it had a lot of different effects on people, and that's what I loved about it the most. So when this hit, it was like. It wasn't like you walked in and your poor pet passed away. Right? You had your own government, who you pay taxes to come in and cut their heads off. And I come from a family. That trauma doesn't happen to us. You fight, you go to work, you provide for your family. Man, you know, they. They broke a soap bottle in my bathroom. There's a stain from the soap, and we had two professional cleaners come in, couldn't get it out. So walking in my bathroom and seeing that, and I haven't even fixed my closet yet. They tore apart my closet, my wife's closet, nothing else in the house. Wow.

[Sean]

What do you think they were trying to find?

[Mark Longo]

So, you know, as this story came out, you know, obviously it was never hiding. My onlyfans, you know, but, you know, they tried to connect puzzle pieces here. You know, this wasn't about Peanut and Fred. This was a new guy on social media, has an only fans, moves to a small town, 1800 people. And the question was, why? Well, why are you here? You know, we tried our best to go, hey, listen, we want to start a community. We want to start a nonprofit. You know, squirrels live 15, 20 years. And this is. This is an animal page, right? This is not. I'm trying to be famous. I was like, I'm actually doing the counter opposite. I'm moving from New York City to a rural area so that I could just focus on me, my family, and animals. And I think that kind of just rubbed somebody the wrong way. Somebody who had pull, somebody who was local, that might have had some connections into any agency and probably banded together with a couple other people to file complaints. A lot of people were like, oh, it's anonymous calls from the Internet. I think it might have been. But it's also not enough for a 10 month investigation. So those are the questions we want. Will we ever get them? Probably not. But it rose questions from everybody around the world. Why did we use six figures of taxpayers money for a 10 month investigation on a squirrel raccoon? It's not living in an apartment in Manhattan. It's on a 350 acre farm that's also being used for a nonprofit animal rescue. Yeah.

[Sean]

You had a sanctuary, right?

[Mark Longo]

Right. So Peanuts Freedom Farm. We moved up there and that was my way of going. This is his legacy is we're going to start something that's bigger than all of us, help more animals and bring the community together. So, you know, we're helping kids, families and at the same time we're helping animals. So we thought it would be perfect to do something like this in a small town. And this is what happened.

[Sean]

Crazy. And a big thing the outlets were saying was it was illegal to own the squirrel in that state.

[Mark Longo]

Right, right. And you know, we had moved there a year prior and we were doing stuff with the, the organization, getting our permits and all that stuff. And you know, it's like going to the dmv. You know, you put in your application, you don't hear for three months. Right. It's not you, you put this in, you get your, your paperwork and you know, call it quits. My wife and I took our test, we put in our applications, we were waiting for them to receive it so then we could do our interview and do the proper steps. You know, I, I know that common misconception here was we were just sitting here kind of doing nothing. You know, I heard like so many people, like, well, they reached out to you so many times. Like. No, the only time they reached out to me was to intimidate me and tell me Tina's never allowed here. You know, we're not talking about moving an alligator from state to state. You know, I'm not harboring a bear.

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[Mark Longo]

You were doing, now, it's a. It's literally what cut his tail off. And he's a rat, you know, so if you don't have the paperwork, it's $200 fine. Jaywalking's $200 fine. Yeah, you don't get your house raided. You know, when you get pulled over on your cell phone, you appear in court. $250 fine. You don't get your house raided. And that was the biggest thing here is why. And it's sure as hell not the animals.

[Sean]

Yeah, that's nuts. Ratings a whole nother level. And we were talking off camera. I'm not sure if you're allowed to say this, but the search warrant was kind of bogus, right?

[Mark Longo]

Oh, yeah. You know, it's. It's surreal. Like, you can make a movie off of this and it's real life. You bring nine people, six of which have weapons, and you detain a family with a search warrant that clearly states you're here for a squirrel and a raccoon. You don't even have a docket number on your search warrant. My lawyer couldn't even find it when she went to the courthouse. And then you falsely detained me for five hours. You don't arrest me, you don't charge me with anything. You don't give me an appear of court, I don't get a violation, I got nothing. Then what I got, I got the search warrant and I got two pieces of paper was a chain of evidence, the squirrel and raccoon. And then they confiscated a weapon that wasn't even mine, and they tried to forcibly make me sign that it was my weapon. Whoa. They even wrote my name like it says, I, Mark Longo. This is my sole property. They wrote my name in there. And then they said, we need you to sign here and here. I said, I'm not signing that because that's not my weapon. I had a co signer on the farm. Good friend of mine brought his rifle up. It's a farm. Again, we're not talking about an apartment in New York city. It's a 350 acre farm. We live in farm. Everybody has a weapon. You know, we're not out here, you know, rattling up together. You know, there's bears, there's coyotes, there's. We got to protect our animals, not a gun guy. So they started feeding me all this crap. I was like, I'll pull up Call of Duty. You tell me what part we're talking about in the guns. I don't know what the hell Are you talking about, man? He was like, you know, this and this piece and that piece and this violates this. And I was like, I don't. Listen, we'll go pull up COD and you can show me what's wrong.

[Sean]

They wanted to charge you for the gun stuff.

[Mark Longo]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean]

If you signed that, they probably would.

[Mark Longo]

Have pursued that 100%. And they still tried to pursue it and it got shut down really quickly. And the DA came out and told my lawyer, he ain't touching this.

[Sean]

Oh, really?

[Mark Longo]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean]

But they're on your side, the da.

[Mark Longo]

Oh, yeah. Well, because of the PR probably. Right. And also because going back to search warrant, there were multiple agencies on the search warrant. Some weren't even involved in the search in seizure whatsoever. It was probably a template. There was probably already agencies on it and nobody deleted them. You know, like, that's so amateur. And that's. That was the biggest thing here, is how many times have they done this where this has been overlooked. Yeah.

[Sean]

Has anyone actually hit you up saying, yo, that happened to me too?

[Mark Longo]

Yeah. Multiple cases from dogs to raccoons to. And we've been helping ever since this kind of hit the spotlight. There's a dog in California right now who's protecting his family from a repeat offender. And they're actually in court fighting to make sure that this dog doesn't get put down. Whoa. When does this line get drawn? When are we going to stop complaining about money? When we're spending it. My area has a really bad homeless issue. Why are we not helping them? It's cold. You know, we're right below Buffalo. We're hitting, you know, minus degrees very soon. They need shelter. You know, they're. They're starting fires under the bridge to keep warm. They're actually melting the steel and damaging the bridges. Wow. That's DEC authority. You know, bridges are dec. That's their main area. Why are we not helping them? We have a rabid coyote that bit three people already. We have a horse down the street that's so neglected, they don't even bat an eye. They don't show up to these. And we were told, oh, every complaint it gets followed up by. Well, then why aren't these. List of 20 that I'm giving you right now ever followed up on crazy?

[Sean]

A lot of corruption. Right.

[Mark Longo]

It's just.

[Sean]

That's why I'm excited for Doge.

[Mark Longo]

Yeah. You know, and that was the biggest thing was this hit everywhere it went worldwide. This wasn't like the state of New York knew about it. You have Elon Musk tweeting. You have presidents talking about it. You have a squirrel walk by the podium at Kamala's press release. You know, the world saw this. You know, and that was the surreal moment for me, was, yeah, I lost my best buddy. You know, we did everything together. Breakfast, like, little tmi, like, I have to go to the bathroom. He's on my shoulder. Like, we did everything together. Like, anybody with a dog or anybody with a pet who's really bonded, it's the same thing. You know, mine was just a tiny, little fluffy rat. But that bond was there, and we shared it with the world. And people resonated with that, whether or not it was with an animal, because that's what hit the most was, you're violating human rights and animal rights. This resonates with the guy that got pulled over for speeding and pulled out of his car. It's the government overreach here is you get a guy that has a hard on one day or had a bad day at home, he takes it out on you. The lead investigator of this raid was awarded the best DEC Officer of the year, like, two years prior to this. Whoa. And this is how you're conducting yourself is crazy. The consensus when we were there was, please don't take my animals. And one of the officers looked me dead in my eye. It was like it was a squirrel, and now it's a raccoon. When does the snowball effect stop? As if I was harboring giraffes and actual monster animals again. You didn't walk in. And I had a bear. Two little animals. And Fred was there as a temporary thing. Somebody dropped him off. It's not like you can call a booklet and be like, oh, so? And so I have a raccoon. You're an animal rescue. You're an animal lover. If somebody dropped off an animal at your front porch, you're going to want to help that animal regardless of what it is. And that's what we did. My wife and I sat there and plucked about 80 ticks out of his ears. Whoa. And washed him up, gave him food and water, wanted him to get big enough so he could be released in our woods. That was the only premise of it. This wasn't like, we're going to put Fred on Instagram and, you know, start a new movement. It was just literally this. This little dude needed help, and we got the means to help him. Let's start him in the right direction and then release him. You know, and if I need some paperwork to do that to just be a kind hearted person, then arrest me or give me a fine, but it'll never stop me from wanting to go and help. And they took that and they ran with it. And that's the heartbreaking point here, is you came after me and you didn't find anything on me. Whether or not you were trying to associate my onlyfans with the kids that we help work on the farm and babysit, you know, it's. It's shameful. It's disgusting.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Mark Longo]

It's not like somebody is like, oh, they're, they're selling a bag of weed, you know, that you're making some very strong accusations that you, you can't turn around and apologize for. You know, there's, there's a line. And that line was heavily crossed.

[Sean]

Absolutely. Why'd you pick only fans over every other platform?

[Mark Longo]

I just, I had the opportunity, somebody called me up and was like, listen, we can make you X amount of money. And the wheels kind of turned for me was like, you know, I never really used social media to monetize anything. I was a mechanical engineer. I had my own job, you know, I had my own career. So it was never really like, oh, I need this money for me and go buy a Ferrari, you know, but my wife and I had ambitions and they were like, you can make a lot of money really fast. And I was like, well, do I sit here and save every penny for the next seven years and hopefully I could buy a farm one day, or do I just pivot, do something that's not everybody's cup of tea? The end of the day, I don't give a crap what you think about, you know, this was a way for me to fulfill my dream. So if I have to do cartwheels naked to make a little bit extra money, so be it, you know? And it was very successful. And I was able to purchase the farm and start the organization. And for the most part, you know, we've only done this for a year and a half. My only fans money was the 60% of the funding to the sanctuary. Wow. And, you know, our sanctuary needs 30 to $40,000 a month. Yeah.

[Sean]

The food's expensive and all the right pet care.

[Mark Longo]

You know, you have dental work, you have feet. You know, it depends on the, you know, the severity of, you know, the neglect cases. So it's not something where you can just go, okay, you know, hey, is a thousand bucks. You know, this is that this and you. There's so many variables. What if a horse gets sick? Your vet bill's 10 grand, you know, so it's like, you need it. So we were using Peanut's social media platform. We got our 501C3. We were taxed, write off and, you know, slowly was starting to gain traction with animal lovers. You know, you have a cool animal sanctuary is built around him. And yeah, this wasn't, you know, let's, let's see if we could just kind of pull everybody's heartstrings, make us money. You know, at the end of the day, we were probably bringing in $10,000 in donations. So, you know, the 25, 30 grand extra was out of pocket for me and my wife. And, you know, we were like, well, maybe one day this will kind of shift and more people get involved. We were startup, you know, and it's not, it's not profit. We're not making anything. You know, everything that we, we bring in goes right back out to these animals. So it's not like, okay, we have a baseline now and we'll bring in this or we'll profit off of this. It was just. No to the point where my wife started making goat milk soap and lotions. And, you know, we did everything we could to just get as much funding as possible. So when you kick the legs out of it by killing, you know, Peanut, it left us in, you know, a vulnerable position. This. Nobody comes here to look at me. You might hear my voice, but you're looking at the squirrel wearing a cowboy hat or Santa Claus hat. You know, you're not here for me. You know, I'm not the squirrel guy without the squirrel. And so how am I going to present the squirrel without the squirrel? You know, how am I going to keep people engaged if I don't have the main star of the. The entire thing? So.

[Sean]

Makes sense.

[Mark Longo]

That was the toughest part, was, holy cow, what are we going to do now?

[Sean]

Yeah. Have they pretty much told you can't have any more animals there?

[Mark Longo]

No, it's been complete radio silent. They took the animals and the government went dead silent. The governor didn't say anything. We heard about the demise of Fred and Peanut through a local news station.

[Sean]

Crazy.

[Mark Longo]

Three days later. So I'm begging and pleading on the Internet for people to call the dec call agencies, find out where Peanut is, all while he's dead already. Wow.

[Sean]

So they killed him right away.

[Mark Longo]

Right away. And they blamed it on rabies. My theory was, and this is what started to become the snowball effect, is you have a rabies vector animal and Fred, you think of raccoons you think rabies right off the bat. You see a raccoon on the street in broad daylight, rabies. And you see a fluffy squirrel that's been on the Internet for seven and a half years clearly doesn't have rabies. But the narrative is Peanut is the star here. So if Peanut bites somebody, we're going to call rabies. Today is the 37th day of the aftermath. There's been no bite evidence. There's been nothing.

[Sean]

Yeah, you'd think they would have to back up that claim, right, when they say rabies.

[Mark Longo]

Every claim that you've made has been shut down so aggressively you're out here saying this guy is purple when everybody can see his blue. And I think that's where the silence comes in. But who am I to judge that? Maybe they're trying to get their information together. But you tell the world that a pet squirrel bit through two protective pairs of gloves, who's a professional, right? So you have a professional officer who gets bit through two pairs of gloves. That shows incompetency or the bite never happened. So why did you get the job in the first place if you couldn't handle a squirrel when your job is also to help animals like bears and coyotes and dogs and much bigger mammals, but you would let a indoor, very cuddly, very sweet animal bite you through two pairs. So it's like, this is like me going, oh, you have blonde hair. No, you don't. So it's just you sitting here just with your jaw on the floor, along with the entire world asking the same questions is how long you been doing this? You know this isn't the first case.

[Sean]

Not at all. Was your lawyer able to get any information on them or anything?

[Mark Longo]

She. There's a 12 month, a 12 week. It's 12 pages notice, notice of claims. That's how much information went in this, from your amendment rights to your constitutional rights, you know, your civil rights. And you have false arrest. My lawyer is making a strong claim of Peanut being a companion animal. He was never a wild animal. It's clear as day if you took a three year old squirrel indoors or any type of animals after having such a long wildlife, okay, that's a wild animal. You have an animal who, since a baby has been living inside, he falls under the companion animal under the law. Like you can make a strong case of it. If he was, then there would be felony charges brought up on the state. Whoa. Under the Animal Cruelty act, you killed a companion animal under the Animal Cruelty Act.

[Sean]

So those are not allowed, like emotional support Animals. You can't touch those.

[Mark Longo]

No, no, you can't. You can't come in and kill a dog like that.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Mark Longo]

You know, it's. It's. First of all, it's disgusting. You know, you're supposed to be protecting animals. You're supposed to be the light for people to feel safe. And you're telling me over some paperwork, you came and raided my house five hours. Something's wrong here, and the bigger picture is not being seen. And that's what we're trying to shed some light on, is to go, hey, this is bigger than these two animals. I love them to death, but this is much bigger than all of us. Yeah.

[Sean]

You might set a precedent.

[Mark Longo]

Right. And they're even attempting to pass a bill, peanuts law. Really make sure that, you know, animals have ample time. There's due process. That's the biggest thing here, is I didn't have my day in court.

[Sean]

Right. You couldn't even fight it.

[Mark Longo]

Right. My animals didn't have their day in court. And, you know, you could call a bite a bite. A spades, a spade, whatever it is. Why wasn't that animal quarantined for 10 days? The new York Post just did a huge article with an expert on rabies. You know, rabies for humans take 45 days to get your brain. Once you get your vaccine, it's wiped away. So, one, why weren't you vaccinated? If you were, please produce it. And if you weren't, why didn't you have it or get it?

[Sean]

Yeah, if you're in that line of work, I mean, you should get the rabies vaccine. I'd assume if you're dealing with wild animals, 100%.

[Mark Longo]

But also, you clearly watch the social media. That's how you found out that I had Peanut in the house. And you can clearly see I don't have rabies. You know, Peanut didn't have rabies. My whole family didn't have rabies. Everybody that's been on the farm doesn't have rabies. This was a holy crap moment going. We don't really have an answer. We got to come up with one. And the lack of experience, you have a small town. You have sheriff's office. You have two animal control officers in three counties. These people weren't set and ready for something this big to come their way. So it was kind of let's scramble to just come up with something. And it's my opinion, but, you know, it's clear as day.

[Sean]

Yeah, it's such a shame because you were trying to Provide a safe spot for people to go to and, you know, feel better. You were talking about going to slaughter auctions, saving horses from being slaughtered.

[Mark Longo]

Right. That was the whole premise of why we moved up here. And, you know, it makes me regret moving to New York. You know, if I just stayed in Connecticut and lived my normal life, Pinot would still be here. It's still be happy with my family, you know, but it was the bigger picture was, you know, there are animals out there that need a helping hand. They need a second chance.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Mark Longo]

And my wife being a huge animal lover and huge. You know, growing up on a farm and having horses, we really didn't understand how sad it was out there. You know, you go to these slaughter auctions, you see the. The shape that these animals are in and you want to help them. And knowing that they're being bought and sold for meat is devastating. We have enough things to eat. We don't need to eat horses and donkeys.

[Sean]

You know, I can't believe that's happening in the U.S. right.

[Mark Longo]

So it's actually illegal for people in the U.S. to slaughter them. So what people do is they buy them here, they ship them to Mexico, Canada, and they get a ton of money off it. You know, we got to feed our families, understand that. But, you know, there's. There's that moral respect is. Don't do that. You know, find another way to help your family. But again, who am I? If you're providing for your family and this is the way you have to, so be it. But I'm going to take a strong stance against it. We're going to raise the money to help save those animals. So you go and buy a horse for 200 bucks, you sell it for 2 grand. That's a big payday. So we started this organization to go, hey, when this happens, we'll raise enough money for that $2,000 to save that horse, and we'll build that horse back up whether or not it's able to be adopted out. Just knowing that we have a secondary area to go. Okay, if it can't be adopted out or if it has, you know, lingering injuries, it could retire at our sanctuary. And that was the whole premise of wanting to start this was, you know, everybody needs a second chance and we're the voice of the animals. And that's what our mission was.

[Sean]

Yeah, that's crazy, man. I didn't know those auctions were a thing. Slaughter auctions are called. How can people look more into those?

[Mark Longo]

Honestly, I'm relatively new to it, but you can literally type in auction, animal auctions in whatever state you are. You know, being in a rural area, in a farm area, it's much easier to find them. And they're huge. You know, they're once or twice a month, and you go there, and there's hundreds of animals.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Mark Longo]

And, you know, there's farmers that go there to get the animals. I'm. I'm totally for using your animals for farm work, but you got to provide it the food and the care that it needs. But when you can't do that and you're doing this vicious cycle of running them to the ground and then selling them, you know, something has to change. And, you know, that's what we thought was the best way is to go in, try to make a stand on it by taking it. We have 74 horses.

[Xbox Advertiser]

Damn.

[Mark Longo]

Yeah. We have a lot. Hundred goats. Holy cow. We have over 350 animals. So it's not like we're sitting here begging and pleading for people to donate on one horse. You know, one horse is, you know, expensive enough and add 74 more. You know, we, you know, we take in, you know, pregnant horses. We take in, you know, run of the mill. Like, there's animals that we have that I couldn't pay you to take back, you know, but we love them because, you know, they give you the respect and love and just, you know, you might. They might not be able to say it, but you could see the love that they're like, hey, thank you. You know, I have one that's about £2,500.

[Sean]

He's a damn.

[Mark Longo]

I call him our dinosaur. His name's Wilbur. You know, he's 28 years old. He was a big Amish workhorse, and all he wanted to do was just relax. And he free roams the entire farm. There's a lot of areas where we just let them go and they walk around with this kind of big smile on their face and just let them run free. That's what they deserved. And just to be able to provide that on the back of peanut was what I wanted this whole thing to be about. Obviously, that didn't work out as I planned, but it doesn't stop us from the mission that we have. And does it suck that this had to transpire, but the sacrifice that was made here for the greater good is what I have to take out of this. The positivity, doing this, talking about this, having people go, wow, that's really messed up. And just make sure that this never happened.

[Sean]

Yeah. Beautiful. You think you're going to move out, though.

[Mark Longo]

No, I think that would be disrespectful for Peanut and Fred and to the other animals. Right. You know, if I just up and leave, what does that say about me? You know, I have a mission. I have a goal. My family does. And that mission is to continue in Peanut's legacy because ultimately, that's what I told our viewers was, you know, we don't. They don't live as long as we do. And this was the legacy that I wanted to build for Peanut. He left us a little bit earlier than I anticipated, but it won't stop us from what our goal was. And now that we have almost the world on our side, we want to make this one of the best places on this planet for animals.

[Sean]

Yeah. What's the next step? What's something people watching this can do actionable to help you or help their community?

[Mark Longo]

Absolutely. We're expanding not only on our farm, but if you want to follow Peanuts, Freedom Farm. This really kind of boomed the social media realm for our sanctuary. It really built up people who had no idea who pinot was or what we were doing behind it. Getting involved. Whether you're a local and want to volunteer or you need a tax write off, this is the best form of a way for us to go, hey, we'll put in the work. If we can get the funding behind us. I have no problem shoveling horse crap for 15 hours. And for all the naysayers are going, oh, you're doing this for money. Come to the farm, scoop up horse crap for 15 hours. See if you come back the next day. You know, come and live in a rural area that has more people than teeth and see if it's as luxurious as you think it is, you know, and that's a common misconception. It's like, oh, he has a, he has a nice car or he has a nice house. Like, because I had a job, you know, I have a career, I saved up money and I didn't move to this area. For me, you know, there's nothing to do. Like, our best steakhouse down the street is like Olive Garden. You know, it's not like you come here and you have, you know, Vegas steaks and New York City steaks. You know, Arby's is like your choice at night.

[Sean]

1800 people there. That's less than my high school.

[Mark Longo]

Right. You know, and that was like, we want to be left alone. I'm a strong, like, my perspective animals over humans a large majority of the.

[Sean]

Time can't Deny that I'd be honest.

[Mark Longo]

Yeah. And then we, obviously, we took a big leap into this crypto. Right. You know, I'm way before an amateur here, and I got caught up in some people that fed me a bunch of bs and it started with like, oh, we'll make a contribution to your GoFundMe or your social media or the farm. In return, just give us a nice little shout out. I'm not thinking anything of it. The money is helping the farm, so I'm going to do whatever it takes to help the farm. So, you know, three or four, you know, these. These people are using my animals. So I'm like, okay, you know, what are we doing here? You're taking this story and you're running with it for money, and you're not even donating to the sanctuary.

[Sean]

Oh, so they didn't donate?

[Mark Longo]

Oh, no. There was one or two. It's maybe out of three on top of my head that contributed, but it was a fraction of what they made. They're making hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Sean]

What?

[Mark Longo]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. This original peanut coin, I think, had a market of almost 2 billion.

[Sean]

Yeah. So P N U T was the coin. Right. I saw this one.

[Mark Longo]

Right. We had no affiliation with this whatsoever.

[Sean]

Really.

[Mark Longo]

They never reached out. They never spoke to us. They took my story, my own photo. My hands are in the photo, and they're making hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Sean]

Holy crap.

[Mark Longo]

And you're sitting here going, wtf? You know, you're. You're building this kind of an empire in the crypto world with the story of a tragedy and cutting the family and the organization out of it.

[Sean]

It's terrible. They could have thrown you like a percent or whatever, you know?

[Mark Longo]

You know, and then, you know, not getting down to it. But it was like, okay, let's. Let's find some people that know a lot more than I do. Right? And I put my trust in some people that failed me, which made my name get run through the dirt in the crypto world.

[Sean]

Well, this just happened to Hawk to a girl yesterday.

[Mark Longo]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Sean]

She got wrecked.

[Mark Longo]

She got destroyed. You know, and it's like, again, we're. We're not experts, you know, I'm not. Can't speak for her in this, but, you know, I'm not. I'm no expert. You know, people are like, oh, you rugged 15 coins. I'm like, I started this crap two weeks ago. Wait, what do you mean, rugged? I didn't develop any of this. I went to people that said, hey, yeah, we could develop A coin. And we could make your sanctuary a really good money. At the end of the day, there's two. Two things I want more than anything here is retire my parents and make sure this sanctuary lives on forever. I'm not going to buy a Ferrari. I don't give a crap about a Rolex. It means nothing to me. It's solidifying this organization and what we were being told was astronomical amounts of money. You know, something that would be able to really solidify both, right? You know, get the, like, two and a half million dollars of renovations that need to be done at the bar and on the farm. You know, provide locals with jobs, get more involved with all this stuff. So your wheels are turning, right? You're. You're vulnerable. You just had your house, right, for five hours, your animals killed. So you're in this point where you've got to do whatever it takes.

[Sean]

Right?

[Mark Longo]

And I trusted some people who, you know, did some shady stuff behind my back, and obviously, I'm the face of it.

[Sean]

They sniped all the tokens.

[Mark Longo]

Oh, they did way more than that, you know, and it was heartbreaking because again, these were people that, you know, I knew from my wife, right? These were people that I didn't know, but I felt trusted them because they had some affiliation with. And again, I was like, listen, don't give me anything. The less I have is better, because again, if I sell something and it ruins something, I really don't know what I'm doing. So I'm literally giving you the. Probably the gate, the keys, you know, and that's on me. You know, that was like my trust level was, hey, I don't really know what I'm doing. You guys, kindly just take whatever you want to allocate to me, keep it. Whenever it comes to our time, make the donation.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Mark Longo]

And it was a couple days later, people were just shelling me, you're stealing money, you're doing this. And I'm like, guys, I'm just kind of sitting here. I don't know what the hell is going on. And they're throwing out numbers and this and that. And, you know, long story short, there's a lot of stuff that was missing, and I'm the one being targeted here. You know, my face is the face of this.

[Sean]

You were the only one that was publicly on it.

[Mark Longo]

Right, Right. So, you know, now you're. You're trying to defend yourself in an. In an area. You have no. I don't know the lingo. I know the terminology. I don't know what's sniping and rugging and, you know, all this thing, and then you're reading like always. This is his 15th coin. I, like, I don't even have that many animals coins. I'm being involved in a trump token and this and that. I'm like, yeah, no, no. I don't even know how to read this damn chart, let alone being a part of it. And we kind of. We sat down with people that I met over the course of this kind of this debacle of crypto. And I met them, and they were like, listen, we don't need the money. This is not about the money. It's about the story. It's about you. And we want to make sure moving forward that your sanctuary is solidified.

[Sean]

Nice.

[Mark Longo]

And they took me under the belt. They started to show me the basic one on ones, and we developed justice for Peanut. And I'm even wearing the merch here. Let's go shout out to justice for Peanut. But it's still like, you're building everybody's trust back. And it's like, oh, you stole. You're a scammer. You're this. Guys, all I want you guys to know is, like, this is about my farm and my family. If I wanted a Ferrari, I would have joined the Peanut token. Stole or scammed or rugged. The hell. Whatever the hell you want to call it. Took a bunch of money and just left. You know, I'm here fighting for the story. I'm here fighting for justice. I'm here fighting for the common person who, you know, got ripped out of their car, right. Got their dog killed. You know, those are the people we're fighting for because they didn't have the voice that Peanut did. And that's what was the biggest thing you said, is I had so many people reach out and go, the DEC did this to me. They killed my animals right in front of me. They shot my dog, and they just walked away. And that's what this movement is about, is bringing that community together to make sure that those people have a voice.

[Sean]

Absolutely.

[Mark Longo]

It's like, okay, now you got to get the FUD out of it and build people's trust. And that's what we're doing here. I was even going like, hey, after this podcast, I'll go get a tattoo that says justice for Peanuts. You know, that's how much this means to me. Again, if you want to call it a money grab, call it a money grab. You know, I'll show you the wallets. I'll show you where the money goes. I'll show you that. We want to build a new barn and arena and put that damn token on the side of it.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Mark Longo]

And have the community go, wow, we built this, we saved this animal. You know, we collaborated and helped this family, you know, or we, on Christmas time, we donated to, you know, the children's hospital or, you know, it doesn't just stop here. Yeah. I'm not expecting everybody to jump on board for Peanuts Freedom Bar, but we have enough people and we have enough community members to go, okay, there's a family in Louisiana that needs help. Or this organization, California is battling forest fires. You know, how can we help? And that's what this movement is about.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Mark Longo]

And that's why we're here. Yeah.

[Sean]

I want to support more local farms and sanctuaries because right now the farming industry has been taken over by big companies and the animals are treated like shit.

[Mark Longo]

Right. And it's a big thing, you know, and, and hopefully this, you know, shedding a tiny light from a scorned raccoon can bring that light to bigger things that are happening here. You know, it doesn't just stop at animals rights stops. You know, we got to stop it everywhere. I know it's a lot easier said than done, but you know, you take a story like this and it opens everybody's eyes. You know, not only do you pay taxes, this is where your taxes are going. Your tax money is going to six figures to raid some guy's house in the middle of nowhere for a 10 month investigation.

[Sean]

It's crazy. And it goes on a bigger scale too with Trump. They went after Trump. They spent nine figures of our tax dollars going after him and now all the charges are getting dropped.

[Mark Longo]

Right.

[Sean]

They just wasted it.

[Mark Longo]

Exactly. And you know, these, I'm not a, I'm not politically affiliated with anybody, you know, but you could tell that this changed the tide and a lot of people's views on politics. You know, you had young kids teetering on, you know, what side they were going to vote. And after what happened on the election, if you said Peanut was not involved with tipping the scale, Peanut was involved.

[Sean]

It was all over X for weeks.

[Mark Longo]

Right. And it's one of those things that it's a government overreach. And if we want to be a part of change, this is the story to start that movement. Whether or not it swayed anybody in their voting, it's the timing couldn't have been any better.

[Sean]

Absolutely. I mean, 450 government agencies, something crazy like that. And I think Elon Just posted Yesterday that only 1% of them show up to work.

[Mark Longo]

Right, Right.

[Sean]

So crazy. So we're paying those salaries.

[Mark Longo]

Right. You know, the biggest thing that I took out of this was the Supreme Court commented on this for reform in New York State for Peanut the squirrel. Supreme Court doesn't comment on anything. Commenting on my squirrel. That's how big this was. Was. You have world leaders going, wtf?

[Sean]

You know what the Supreme Court said?

[Mark Longo]

They literally said, we need reform and we have enough things to talk about. And I always said this from the beginning, like, I shouldn't be in the new, we have bigger fish to fry. And although I'm honored to be able to fight for my animals, what's happening to the kids that have to sleep under a rock at night, the people that can't afford their electricity, Those are the people we're fighting for. But yet we're talking about a squirrel. You have Kathy Hochul, our governor in New York State, advocating for animal and human rights. World mine. You don't want to talk about mine, though. You falsely arrested me in my house. You broke five amendment rights, but you want to talk about rights?

[Sean]

She had to sign off on that. The governor.

[Mark Longo]

Oh, 100%. Wow. She's the head of the DEC. Damn. She's the voice. Like, that's. Those are your agencies and you're telling me you didn't have any idea what was happening here? How do you have multiple people and then a family court judge sign off on this? So somebody had to go, hey, yo, so and so. Hope you're having a great day. How's your family? This. Oh, yeah, by the way, can you just sign this real quick? Anybody with a brain would have looked at this case and gone, I ain't signing that and put my name on it.

[Sean]

Right.

[Mark Longo]

This guy did it without a sweat broke.

[Sean]

You know, it was just another day for him. Right. He probably does that once a week at least.

[Mark Longo]

Right. You know, and that's the same goes with the police. You know, the agents that showed up here, you've done this so many times. There's a cakewalk. You didn't go through your procedures because you've done this so many times. You don't have to worry about it.

[Sean]

The difference is you had a voice.

[Mark Longo]

Right.

[Sean]

You know, they're probably doing it to ordinary people. They don't have social media following. Nothing happens.

[Mark Longo]

And that's exactly what they thought here was, we're just going to go do this. We don't like this, this family being here. We're going to show them we could flex our muscles. We're going to kill your animal. Literally. The name of your organization, we're going to kill it. And you're going to have nothing to stand on. What am I going to do if I don't have this platform? There goes my donations, There goes the name of my organization. I have to shut down.

[Sean]

And most people don't have money to fight something like that.

[Mark Longo]

Right. So it's like that's what they came in here, they kicked the legs out of this organization and they thought they were just going to walk away from it. And boy, were they wrong. And that's the biggest thing, the love and support for this walking down Vegas and just being here and people going like, justice for Peanut. There's no dollar sign that could ever amount to that. That's a surreal moment. If we do a Netflix documentary on.

[Sean]

This, I can see it.

[Mark Longo]

It's a story that is so unbelievable that every turn that you make, there's something else that you're like, holy crap. And it's just, just sitting here talking about it. You're like, this is. This can't be real.

[Sean]

Yeah, I can't wait to see what you do with the mark. Where can people keep up with you and donate and all that stuff?

[Mark Longo]

Yes. Just. We have our socials, we have our website. You know, it's, you know, mine is scroll down, you know, but it's, it's peanut, the Scroll 12. Like it's always been the same original stuff. And then, you know, we abbreviated Peanut to make a little bit more original. So we went with the P apostrophe and UTS Freedom Farm. You know, the more supporters and the more you. We kind of continue to drive this in the right direction, the more organizations we could help. Not only ours, but that's what we ultimately want to do, is help those veterans, help the ptsd, help the children, help the lower income families. Whether it's providing free services at the farm or raising money for their care, it doesn't just stop in our organization. That's where I think this movement to really be focused on is. Yes. What happened to me was a tragedy. Shift the narrative here and let's help people and animals alike.

[Sean]

I love that man. We'll link everything below. Thanks so much for coming on.

[Mark Longo]

I appreciate it. Thank you for your time.

[Sean]

See you at power slaps tonight.

[Mark Longo]

Absolutely.

[Sean]

See you guys.

[Mark Longo]

Take care.