On October 30, 2024, Peanut was seized from Longo's home by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and euthanized soon after for rabies testing, which yielded negative results.

Peanut's death created an outcry on social media, condemnation from various lawmakers, and the introduction of a bill aimed at preventing similar incidents in the future.

[2][6][7] Longo has stated that he was in the process of filing paperwork to have Peanut certified as an educational animal at the time of the seizure,[8] however, he has not explained why he did not pursue a license in the preceding seven years.

[11] In April 2023, Longo and his wife moved from his hometown of Norwalk, Connecticut, to upstate New York to found the P'Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary.

[21] The PBANYS said in its press release that of the 12 personnel who executed the search warrant, only three were uniformed Environmental Conservation officers, who were mainly focused on securing the couple's 80-acre (32 ha) property and not seizing the animals.

[13] On November 12, CCHD officials announced at a news conference that Peanut and Fred had tested negative and provided their rabies report forms to the public.

They explained that the CCHD completed the rabies report forms and forwarded them to Elmira Animal Control to authorize the euthanasia at the request of the NYSDEC.

[22] Peanut's death triggered public backlash, social media outcry, condemnation from several lawmakers, and a proposed bill aimed at preventing similar incidents in the future.

There are 40 million rats or more in New York, and they executed the only one trained to wear a cowboy hat and had an Instagram account"[30] and pointed to it as an example of government overreaching while ignoring its core responsibilities.

The Republican vice presidential candidate of the 2024 U.S. election, JD Vance, posted on X that "Don is fired up about P'Nut the squirrel"; the official Trump campaign TikTok account also condemned Peanut's death.

[36] Speaking at an annual dinner event hosted by the Federalist Society, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch mentioned the squirrel as an example of the negative impact of abuse of government power.