How a prominent squirrel became a harbinger of Trump's return

At Anne's Pancakes, a local breakfast spot in neighboring Elmira, residents strongly supported the squirrel — and the election results. “P'Nut is a hero, a symbol of resistance. “You don’t just take someone’s rescued pets and kill them,” Peter Fleming said.

“What kind of satanic crap is this?” Jay Lee Williams, standing next to him, said he doubted they were wild animals, as the government claimed. “They sounded domesticated to me. Why do they have the authority to do this?”

A few hours earlier, before the election results were announced, Macie Drake said at a bar in Elmira that she, too, doubted that a pet squirrel had rabies. And there were bigger questions. “Why are they sending agents into a shelter when they could be dealing with bigger issues like immigration and homelessness?” she asked.

“I'm only friendly to a squirrel”

Jeremy Christian, 44, a union electrician, questioned why the state had the authority to search the Longos' home. “If I want a pet squirrel, shut up.” Democrats, he said, are “a bunch of pedophiles” in Washington DC.

“You do whatever you do and I just be kind to a squirrel and raise it like my child and you run into my house for it? What will you do next? Raid my goldfish snacks? No. Stop it. I'm done with this.

“We call this an abuse of power. We don't want the government in our business. They’re just trying to control people.”

A woman who described herself as a teacher said: “People have lost their minds. Wild animals deserve to be wild. It’s much ado about nothing.”

Arlo Baker, a receptionist at the Chemung Health Department, said she has received dozens of threatening calls about P'Nut, even though the department has nothing to do with animal management.

At Freedom Farm, Mark Longo reflected on the events of October 30 and remembered P'Nut as a loving, curious and occasionally grumpy person.

“Why did we need ten officers to carry out a five-hour raid? My wife immediately told them where the raccoon was. They knew Fred was in the closet. If he was such a threat, why didn't they just get him out? Why did you search my closets? and not the closets in the rest of the house? Because I have a site that isn't your thing?

“This is about a bigger picture and not about two small animals. It's about individual freedoms. I was not given due process and my constitutional rights were violated because of a raccoon and a squirrel.”