Peanut The Squirrel's Owner Rips New York for Seizing, Killing Social Media Star

The owners of a pet squirrel with a massive social media following are going nuclear on government officials in New York ...

accusing the state of abusing power and wasting taxpayer funds to seize and kill Peanut, all because of some anonymous claims. Mark Longo and his wife, Daniela , joined us on "TMZ Live" Friday and shared their outrage over what they say has been a grave injustice ..



. and it got emotional. Mark tells us officials from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation showed up at his doorstep Wednesday with a search warrant signed by 4 state agencies and a judge .

.. treating him like a criminal while they raided his home in search of Peanut.

He says the police wouldn't even let him use his own bathroom without an escort during the raid ...

and he couldn't feed his horses ...

not until the authorities left with Peanut. Mark says his wife was questioned about her immigration status during the search ..

. and one of their pet raccoons was taken away too. Both Peanut and the raccoon have since been euthanized as a result of rabies testing.

Frankly, it all sounds ridiculous ...

and Mark says Peanut happily lived with him for 7 years, spreading joy on the internet with funny and wholesome videos, becoming his best friend in the process. While it's technically illegal to have a pet squirrel in NY, Mark says he wasn't hiding Peanut -- the squirrel has 532,000 followers on IG and over 1,400 posts -- and he says anonymous complaints about Peanut led state agencies to get a search warrant to rip the animal from his home and kill it. Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.

Fighting back tears and with a clear sense of anger in his voice, Mark tells us it's inconceivable the state is so concerned about a pet squirrel he says was harming no one ...

and he thinks it's an example of everything that's broken in our country. Mark says Peanut was the cornerstone of his family and his nonprofit animal rescue, P'Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary ..

. and he doesn't know how he's going to continue without his squirrely friend. It's an impactful and emotional conversation .

.. catch the full interview on "TMZ Live.

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