P’Nut the Squirrel’s last living photo released by state DEC

This was P’Nut’s fur-well. 

The world’s most famous squirrel looked happy, healthy and at ease in his final moments — just before state agents brutally beheaded him, a heart wrenching new photo reveals. 

During their now-infamous raid on Mark Longo’s upstate home and animal refuge, agents from the state Department of Environmental Conservation snapped the last photo of P’Nut, who can be seen perched on his hind legs inside of a cage looking wide-eyed, innocent, and completely oblivious to his impending doom.

“You can tell P’Nut is not upset [in the photo]. He’s not clinging to the cage and he’s not even facing the camera. The way he’s positioned, we call that ‘mirror catting.’ Squirrels sit on their butt and tuck their paws in, and that’s a sign of them feeling comfortable. It’s not a defense position. P’Nut would ‘mirror cat’ when he was happy,” an emotional Longo, 35, told The Post this week.  

“It’s heartbreaking to know that that’s the final photo I will ever see of P’Nut,” he continued. 

In another photo, an investigator’s gloved hands can be seen holding the top of a blue, checkered suitcase open to reveal P’Nut’s raccoon pal, Fred, peering out at the camera, just moments before he too was seized and decapitated. 

The pictures were among hundreds of documents released by the state Department of Environmental Conservation last week in response to a Freedom of Information Law request about the agency’s Oct. 30 raid, which became a national symbol of government overreach. 

The records reveal a total of 12 agents showed up to Longo’s Pine City home to investigate several civilian complaints about his ownership of P’Nut and Fred, who were featured on Longo’s social media pages. 

When the agents arrived, Longo initially told them there were no wild animals in the house, and claimed P’Nut had been “taken to Connecticut,” according to one investigator’s written statement. 

“Anybody in my position would’ve done anything to save their animals, so yeah, I lied to them,” Longo explained this week.  

His wife, Daniela Bittner, eventually admitted to investigators that Fred was in the upstairs closet, according to the DEC documents, which show that P’Nut was found in an upstairs bathtub.

Fred was sleeping peacefully in the suitcase when agents found him, Longo lamented.

Reports say that P’Nut bit a female wildlife biologist’s thumb at some point in the investigation – but how remains a mystery. 

“She was bitten on the thumb through a thick leather glove with a nitrile exam glove underneath. There were no visible punctures in either of these gloves, but she did have a wound on her thumb that bled,” reads an internal DEC email sent at 5:35 p.m. the day of the raid. 

As a result, Fred and P’Nut were decapitated at Elmira Animal Control Center. Their rabies tests came back negative, according to records. 

On Nov. 4, the animals’ bodies were moved to an evidence freezer in the state Department of Health’s Avon offices, the records state. 

Where and in what condition their corpses are in today remains unclear, although a DEC spokesperson said this week that all evidence is currently being preserved.

In response to questions regarding the department’s internal investigation of the raid and animal slayings, the DEC sent a weeks-old statement from its new acting commissioner Amanda Lefton. 

“I have prioritized a review of our current wildlife protection and enforcement process to protect New Yorkers and this agency from similar incidents in the future,” the statement reads. 

On Tuesday, Longo and Bittner joined state Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz (R-Nassau) at the state capital to unveil “Peanut’s Law: The Humane Protection Act,” which would require the DEC to wait 72 hours before euthanizing any seized animals.