ICE GOING NUTS

ICE Grabs Owner of Viral Squirrel Killed by State Officials

Her deportation would jeopardize the couple’s nonprofit animal sanctuary, which houses 600 animals, including 100 horses.

The former owner of a viral pet squirrel, P’Nut—who was seized, euthanized, and decapitated by state officials—has been detained by ICE.

German native Daniela Bittner, 30, has been kept in “appalling conditions” for almost a month, according to her husband of four years, 36-year-old Mark Longo.

Bittner has been denied access to replacement contacts, which can severely damage eyes, and has been relocated to detention centers across the country three times.

She came to the country legally and has only a “minor issue” in her immigration paperwork, her husband told the New York Post.

“She came into this country legally on a visa,” Longo said. “We filed the paperwork and stuff, and apparently the government is saying we filed the wrong piece of paper.”

Bittner, who has no criminal history, could be deported any minute, which would jeopardize the couple’s nonprofit P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary in Pine City, New York, which houses 600 animals, including 100 horses.

P’Nut the squirrel was taken into custody on Oct. 30, 2024, alongside an injured raccoon the couple was nursing because they lacked proper wildlife possession paperwork, which they tried to comply with by taking steps to become licensed wildlife rehabilitators, according to AP.

The squirrel supposedly bit a wildlife officer, and both animals were killed and had their heads removed for brain tissue testing.

Both animals tested negative.

Play Video

“This will ruin my life. Like P’Nut was enough for me, and now you’re gonna take away the one symbol that I work for every day, and that’s animal rescue,” Longo pleaded. “This has been a nightmare, to say the least.”

Longo said Bittner faces removal to Germany without a formal hearing.

The social media influencers drove to Elmira airport in upstate New York on October 16 to fly to a TikTok event. But as they exited their car, plainclothes officers swarmed the vehicle and refused to identify themselves.

She’s since moved facilities from Syracuse to Buffalo, then to Louisiana and now to Texas.

Longo said living without contact replacements for two weeks almost “pulled her retinas off her eyeballs.”

“This is a minor paperwork issue, and it’s being treated as if my wife literally crawled out a hole to get into this country,” he said.

An Associated Press investigation revealed that officials were already discussing killing P’Nut and Fred the raccoon before the raid of Bittner and Longo’s home.

“We fully expect that all ‘wild’ animals in the home will need to be euthanized and sent for rabies testing due to the nature of the human contact,” a county email stated a week before.

The couple sued New York state and its environmental conservation and health departments in August 2025, seeking $10 million over the animals’ seizure and deaths.

Their complaint alleges constitutional violations and wrongful killing, describing the deaths as a “senseless act of violence” rather than a necessary response to a rabies threat.

The couple also filed a separate lawsuit in the Chemung County Supreme Court against local and state officials over the same raid and the animals’ deaths.

The case even reached the rhetorical orbit of the Supreme Court, as Republican Justice Neil Gorsuch mentioned the incident at the Federalist Society’s annual dinner in November 2024.

Gorsuch invoked P’Nut while discussing government overreach, saying, “Yes, I’m speaking of P’Nut the squirrel,” he told the audience, drawing laughter and applause.

He continued, inappropriately joking about the couple’s alleged OnlyFans account and saying he hasn’t heard whether the squirrel was involved.

P’Nut’s death drew public outrage in 2024 and became a Republican campaign talking point.

“Justice for Peanut!” Donald Trump Jr. chanted at a November 3 rally in Sanford, North Carolina. “Our government will let in 16,000 rapists, 13,000 murderers, 600,000 criminals across our border, but if someone has a pet squirrel without a permit, they’ll go in there and kill the squirrel.”

At the same rally, then-vice-presidential nominee JD Vance joked, “I know Don is fired up about P’Nut the squirrel,” before calling the animal “the Elon Musk of squirrels.”

Former DOGE advisor Elon Musk also replied to an X user joking that P’Nut’s death would win Republicans the 2024 election, posting, “Government overreach kidnapped an orphan squirrel and executed him.”

The sanctuary-owning couple is now being prevented from appealing, though the legal basis for Bittner’s detention and any timetable for deportation remain unclear.

“We are fighting so hard, but they are about to deport my life and finish what they started,” Longo told TMZ on Wednesday.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Reagin von LeheBreaking News Intern

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.