Squirrels, whales, bears: why is the road to the White House littered with dead animals? | US elections 2024

TThe death of Peanut, an Instagram-famous squirrel who was euthanized after being picked up from his New York home last week, has become an unlikely election motivator for Republicans, in just the latest in a series of bizarre animal-related incidents that have marked this presidential election . election campaign.

Outrage over Peanut’s death last week at the hands of New York conservationists has boiled over in conservative circles, with JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, saying that Donald Trump is “excited” about the incident and that “the Democrats are the Elon Musk of the squirrels”.

He added at a rally in North Carolina on Sunday: “The same government that doesn’t care about hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant criminals coming into our country doesn’t want us to have pets.”

Musk himself, the Trump-backing billionaire, told the Joe Rogan podcast on Monday that the death of Peanut, killed along with a raccoon named Fred, “should really mobilize people. I hope people just get out there and vote, for Peanut, man, if nothing else. Just vote.” Musk thought about it at length with Rogan, another Trump supporter, asking, “If they can do that to your pets, what do you think they can do to you?”

Peanut was taken from Mark Longo’s home in Pine City, New York, on Wednesday after he allegedly bit the finger of a wildlife official who was inspecting how the animal had been kept in the seven years since Longo adopted him. It is illegal to have a pet squirrel in New York and Peanut, along with Fred, was euthanized to test them for rabies, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

The furore over Peanut, who had about 720,000 followers on Instagram, where he posed for photos in an assortment of hats, was so great that the DEC allowed staff to work from home on Monday and Tuesday after his offices were subject to at least 10 bombings. threats. A GoFundMe for Peanut has already raised approximately $200,000 for the “P’nuts Freedom Farm, which tirelessly rescues and cares for vulnerable animals.”

The incident, which has been elevated by Republicans from quirky, state-based officialdom to a matter of national importance as the US heads to the polls on Tuesday, rounds off a series of unusual animal-themed incidents that have set off an electoral battle between Trump and Kamala Harris. stand in the way. wild in different ways.

During the only televised debate between Trump and Harris, in September, Trump repeated allegations that Haitian migrants ate the pets of people in Springfield, Ohio. “They eat the dogs, the people who came in, they eat the cats,” Trump said, prompting disbelief among debate moderators and Harris. “They eat the pets of the people who live there.”

The furore over the Springfield pets was sandwiched between two other, separate episodes of dog killings. Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, revealed in a book that she shot her dog Cricket in a gravel pit, along with a “nasty and mean” goat and three horses. Then it emerged that Kevin Roberts, the man behind the controversial right-wing Project 2025 manifesto, admitted to killing a neighbor’s pit bull with a shovel around 2004.

Not to be outdone, Robert Kennedy Jr., who will gain sweeping powers over health and food policy if Trump wins, revealed that doctors had previously found a dead worm in his brain, that he had a dead bear in his car had stopped and smuggled it. to Central Park in New York to make it look like a cyclist killed him, and that he is under investigation for sawing off the head of a beached whale and taking it home tied to the roof of his minivan.

“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the grossest thing on earth,” Kick Kennedy, RFK Jr.’s daughter, recalled in a 2012 interview about the incident, that took place in 2012. years ago.

The wildlife’s repeated forays into the election campaign have “all been bizarre. I mean, Haitians eating cats, planting a dead bear in Central Park, Kristi Noem shooting a dog – it’s all disturbing and bizarre,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and a veteran animal rights activist.

Americans care deeply about animals, especially their pets, Pacelle said, but these incidents have not been used to advance any animal welfare goals; instead, they used it for other priorities, such as Trump’s anti-immigrant invective.

“These are all strange one-off events and do not add up to a broader story that could be told about animal welfare,” he said.

“It is a missed opportunity for politicians to engage with animal welfare issues, which are a universal issue for all voters. We have a huge problem with animals in our society – we have factory farming, trophy hunting, we have puppy mills, cock and dog fighting. These are big problems and there is a public will to do something about them. Instead we have this.”

Read more about the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage