This was P'Nut fur.
The world's most famous squirrel looked happy, healthy and safe in his final moments. Just before state agents brutally beheaded him, a new heartbreaking photo was revealed.
During the now-acclaimed raid on Mark Longo's northern home and animal shelter, Environmental Protection Agency agents took the final photo of Punat.
“You can say P'Nut isn't upset [in the photo]. He is not clung to the cage, and not even facing the camera. In his way of position, we call it “mirror cat.” The squirrel sits on his butt and pushes his legs in. It's a sign they feel comfortable. That's not a defensive position. The emotional Longo, 35, told the Post this week.
“It's heartbreaking to know that it's the last photo I ever had on P'Nut,” he continued.
In another photo, the inspector's gloved hand opens the top of his blue checkered suitcase, looking into the camera, P'nut's raccoon buddy Fred, who is also seized and just before he is decapitated.
The photo is one of hundreds of documents released by the State Department last week by the state's Environmental Protection Agency, and became a symbol of the government's state in response to a demand for freedom of information regarding the October 30 attack.
Records reveal a total of 12 agents have appeared at the Pine City home in Longo to investigate several civilian complaints about the ownership of P'Nut and Fred featured on Longo's social media pages.
When agents arrived, Longo initially told them there were no wildlife in the house, claiming Pnutt was “taken to Connecticut,” according to a written statement from an investigator.
“Everyone in my position did anything to save the animals, so yeah, I lied to them,” Longo explained this week.
His wife, Daniela Bittner, eventually admitted to investigators that Fred was in the closet upstairs.
When the agents found him, Fred was sleeping peacefully in his suitcase, Longo lamented.
Reports say that P'Nut bit the thumb of a female wildlife biologist at one point in the investigation, but how it remains a mystery.
“She was bitten with her thumb through a thick leather gloves with nitrile testing gloves underneath. There was no visible puncture on any of these gloves, but she suffered a wound to her thumb,” read an internal December email sent at 5:35pm on the day of the attack.
As a result, Fred and P'nut were beheaded at the Elmira Animal Control Center. Records show that their rabies tests have returned negatively.
On November 4th, the animal remains were transferred to the Recording State Evidence Freezer, the Avon office of the state Department of Health.
A DEC spokesperson said this week that all the evidence is currently being preserved, but it remains unclear where and what condition their bodies are today.
In response to questions about the department's internal investigation into the attacks and animal killings, the DEC sent a statement from new representative Amanda Lefton in a few weeks ago.
“We have prioritized review of the current wildlife conservation and enforcement process to protect New Yorkers and this agency from similar cases in the future,” the statement said.
On Tuesday, Longo and Bitner joined the state's capital, Jake Blumenkrantz (R-Nassau), to reveal the “Peanuts Law: Humanitarian Law.”
