New York lawmakers push ‘Peanut's Law' to reform wildlife enforcement
'Peanut's Law: The Humane Animal Protection Act' would require the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to wait 72 hours before any instance of euthanizing any seized animals.
The only exception, according to the bill, would be instances in which there is an immediate risk to public safety, as determined by a licensed veterinarian.
The 72-hour waiting period would allow families and sanctuaries to file an emergency appeal with the department, allowing the case to be reviewed by an emergency board including a licensed veterinarian, a public health official and a sanctuary representative to determine the best course of action.
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'It's veterinarians and families and individuals making these decisions as to the fate of these animals, and not bureaucrats and red tape that decide arbitrarily that these animals have to be killed,' New York Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz, R-Nassau, told 'Morning in America' on Thursday.
While some have raised concerns the bill could put state environmental officers in danger if there is a rabies concern, Blumencranz said he's not worried.
'I don't think they would be in a situation where they'd ever be in danger, because if human life, or the life of the officer, or any instance in which humans may be in danger are at play, then they would not have to go through this similar due process system,' he said.
New York authorities carried out a raid last year at Mark Longo's home after 'numerous complaints' about the squirrel, according to the Associated Press. Longo had rescued the squirrel seven years previously.
On Oct. 30, 2024, the state euthanized P'Nut and Longo's pet raccoon, Fred, to test them for rabies after reports they had bitten someone. Longo disagreed with the decision and said that P'Nut had not bitten anyone.
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Longo said he still has not received sufficient answers for exactly how the incident came to pass.
'Since Oct. 30, we have heard nothing. We've gotten zero answers, but we've been told we can do better by the state officials of the DEC, so we're really trying to understand what that actually means,' he said.
Longo said passing Peanut's Law would be a step forward to ensure P'Nut and Fred 'didn't die in vain.' He added it would be an opportunity to advance animal rights and turn a tragedy into a positive moment.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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USA Today
28 minutes ago
- USA Today
It's not just DC: Republicans seem happy to let Trump do whatever he wants
For a party that claims to care about federal overreach, GOP leaders certainly have been quiet about President Trump's invasion of an American city. I'm starting to wonder when our government's checks and balances will kick in – or if they will at all. On Monday, Aug. 11, President Donald Trump announced he would be deploying the National Guard in Washington, DC, and taking over the city's police force "to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.' The troops began showing up on Tuesday evening. According to Trump, violent crime is up in the nation's capital, and he's the only one who can rescue the city from societal collapse. It's a convenient narrative, one that feeds into MAGA's perception of him. For the rest of us, it's a terrifying move that shows he is willing to test the limits of presidential oversight. But while Trump's hostile takeover of DC public safety is concerning on its own, it's more alarming that Republicans in Congress are letting him do this with seemingly no regard for what is ethical. Even if this deployment is legal, there are certain lines that presidents should not cross. This is one of them. And I have to ask. Would Republicans be sitting on their hands if a Democratic president were doing everything that Trump is doing? I would hope not, but here we are. Of course, Trump is lying about crime in DC Trump seems to have called in the military after an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer on Aug. 3. While it's horrible that a government employee was attacked, Trump's declaration that Washington is crime-infested and dangerous doesn't align with reality. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, violent crime is down 26% compared with last year. In fact, 2024 marked a 30-year low for violent crime in Washington, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Per a New York Times analysis, the homicide rate in 2023 was 40.4 per 100,000 people, the highest rate in 20 years. But that rate declined in 2024, down to 26.6 per 100,000 people. And homicides in the city continue to decline in 2025. While Trump is correct in saying this rate is higher than those of Mexico City and Bogotá, Colombia, it doesn't paint the full picture. A federal takeover is an extreme reaction. It doesn't matter, of course, that violent crime in the city is down overall this year. That wouldn't fit in with the Trumpian narrative, the one where he's the hero saving tourists and locals alike from violent crime. Are you worried about crime? Do you feel safe where you live? Tell us. | Opinion Forum Who even asked for this? It wasn't DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. All of this is happening to the dismay of Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser, who noted on the Aug. 12 edition of 'The Breakfast Club' that the militarization of the city will instill fear in its residents. '(Trump) wants to send the message to cities that if he can get away with this in Los Angeles, if he can get away with this in DC, he can get away with it in New York, or Baltimore or Chicago, or any other place where millions of people live, work and are doing everything the right way,' Bowser said on the radio show. Bowser is right, this is an escalation. It's Trump's way of showing everyone in Democratic parts of the country that he has the final say and that he isn't afraid to use the military to his advantage. Trump is a bully. He's using the National Guard to conquer DC as a test run. | Opinion Will Republicans hold Trump accountable for anything? For a party that claims to care about federal overreach, GOP leaders certainly have been quiet about Trump's invasion of an American city. In fact, it seems that many are supportive of the move. If a Democratic president were to try to do this, the Republican Party would decry authoritarianism's arrival in the United States. But because it's Trump, there has been zero pushback. Just like his tariff plan that's costing everyday Americans, the failed Elon Musk overhaul of the federal government, the deployment of soldiers against citizens in Los Angeles and his ruthless immigration agenda that includes trying to erase due process, the GOP is letting him get away with all of it. Republicans may even be happy about it. Imagine if Joe Biden did any of that? The Republican pearl-clutching would be generational. But this is fine because it's their king. Trump is considering extending the troop deployment beyond 30 days, something he will need congressional approval for. This seems entirely plausible, even likely, because of the Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. I'm hesitant to throw the F-word – fascism – around, but if the Trump administration continues down this path, I worry that the rights we have as Americans will slip away. Who's stopping the president from deploying troops to other cities in the United States? It certainly isn't going to be Congress. There's some hope for the Supreme Court, but it has a 6-3 conservative majority. All of this is happening within the first year of Trump's return to the White House. There's no telling what the next three years will bring if this is how he's starting out. There should be firm lines that presidents do not cross – there are some things that are not appropriate or reasonable for a president to do. Yet that line keeps getting moved by Republicans, who don't seem to care as long as their conservative agenda is being implemented. Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno
41 minutes ago
DC Mayor Bowser walks delicate line with Trump, reflecting the city's precarious position
NEW YORK -- As National Guard troops deploy across her city as part of President Donald Trump's efforts to clamp down on crime, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is responding with relative restraint. She's called Trump's takeover of the city's police department and his decision to activate 800 members of the guard ' unsettling and unprecedented ' and gone as far as to cast his efforts as part of an 'authoritarian push.' But Bowser has so far avoided the kind of biting rhetoric and personal attacks typical of other high-profile Democratic leaders, despite the unprecedented incursion into her city. 'While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that, given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we're totally surprised,' Bowser told reporters at a press conference responding to the efforts. She even suggested the surge in resources might benefit the city and noted that limited home rule allows the federal government 'to intrude on our autonomy in many ways.' 'My tenor will be appropriate for what I think is important for the District," said Bowser, who is in her third term as mayor. "And what's important for the District is that we can take care of our citizens.' The approach underscores the reality of Washington, D.C.'s precarious position under the thumb of the federal government. Trump has repeatedly threatened an outright takeover of the overwhelmingly Democratic city, which is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed in 1973 that could be repealed by Congress. Republicans, who control both chambers, have already frozen more than a $1 billion in local spending, slashing the city's budget. That puts her in a very different position than figures like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Illinois Gov. B Pritzker, Democrats whose states depend on the federal government for disaster relief and other funding, but who have nonetheless relentlessly attacked the current administration as they lay the groundwork for potential 2028 presidential runs. Those efforts come amid deep frustrations from Democratic voters that their party has not been nearly aggressive enough in its efforts to counter Trump's actions. 'Unfortunately she is in a very vulnerable position,' said Democratic strategist Nina Smith. 'This is the sort of thing that can happen when you don't have the powers that come with being a state. So that's what we're seeing right now, the mayor trying to navigate a very tough administration. Because this administration has shown no restraint when it comes to any kind of constitutional barriers or norms." Bowser's approach marks a departure from Trump's first term, when she was far more antagonistic toward the president. 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Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in his executive order, declaring a 'crime emergency' so his administration could take over the city's police force. The statue limits that control to 30 days unless he gets approval from Congress. 'The challenge would be on the question of 'Is this actually an emergency?'' said Henderson, a former congressional staffer. 'That's really the only part you could challenge.' Henderson believes the city would face dim prospects in a court fight, but thinks the D.C. government should challenge anyway, 'just on the basis of precedent.' Trump told reporters Wednesday that he believes he can extend the 30-day deadline by declaring a national emergency, but said "we expect to be before Congress very quickly.' 'We're gonna be asking for extensions on that, long-term extensions, because you can't have 30 days," he said. 'We're gonna do this very quickly. But we're gonna want extensions. I don't want to call a national emergency. 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Police chief Pamela Smith said the city's police department is short almost 800 officers, so the extra police presence 'is clearly going to impact us in a positive way.' But Nina Smith, the Democratic strategist, said she believes Bowser needs a course correction. 'How many times is it going to take before she realizes this is not someone who has got the best interests of the city at heart?" she asked. 'I think there may need to be time for her to get tough and push back.' Despite Trump's rhetoric, statistics published by Washington's Metropolitan Police show violent crime has dropped in Washington since a post-pandemic peak in 2023. A recent Department of Justice report shows that violent crime is down 35% since 2023, reaching its lowest rate in 30 years.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump wants to mobilize troops in DC – it went horribly for him in Los Angeles
Trump made a much-teased announcement on Monday that he would invoke a never-before-used presidential authority to seize control of Washington, D.C.'s police department from local control to his Attorney General Pam Bondi. The president also announced he would deploy the National Guard on the streets of the nation's capital as a plan to 'rescue' the city from rampant crime, despite the fact that crime dropped in Washington by 35 percent last year after it spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump had teased a federal takeover of Washington and has decried homelessness and graffiti in the city. Republicans have encroached on Washington, D.C's home rule for decades. The fact it is a majority Black city with a Black political establishment has also made it easy to attack the same way Trump has attacked Baltimore and other cities run by Black mayors. Of course, this is not the first time that Trump has taken control of a major American city. Earlier this year, after protests against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles without the consent of the governor of California or the city's mayor. Trump may be hoping his actions will boost his approval ratings, which have been sagging in recent months. But a simple look at the numbers shows that it might backfire precipitously. First, let's get to the kernel of truth in Trump's idea. Voters in Democratic cities did vote against their leaders partially because of crime. New York City elected Eric Adams, a former police officer, as mayor in 2021. Voters in San Francisco kicked out mayor London Breed and voters in Los Angeles and Alameda beat back progressive prosecutors for lax policies toward crime. While almost no Democratic presidential candidate has supported defunding the police it became a tagline for Republicans use to hit at Democrats. That being said, it's fairly clear that Trump's approval ratings took a hit after he dispatched troops and the National Guard to Los Angeles. When Trump first came into office this year, and even after he began his tariff regime, Americans continued to support him on immigration. In February, according to an Economist/YouGov poll, he still cracked 50 percent approval on immigration. That number began to dip in April, after Trump sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the immigrant based in Maryland, to El Salvador. In April, Trump's approval number on immigration went to 45 percent. But by May, the same poll showed his approval on immigration started to rebound to 48 percent. That would go 'poof' in June once Trump began to send troops to Los Angeles. By the middle of June, a plurality of Americans thought that his response to the anti-ICE protests was too aggressive and 52 percent disapproved of his policies on immigration. By the end of June, 50 percent of Americans opposed Trump's policies on immigration. and his number has stubbornly stayed there. Not only that, as The Independent reported last month, polling from CBS News and CNN bore that out as well. The CNN poll also found that 59 percent of Americans opposed the deployment of National Guard troops without the consent of the governor and 55 percent of respondents said protesters were justified. While much of the attention when it comes to Trump's approval tends to focus on Jeffrey Epstein, it's clear that his approval began to collapse long before that scandal, when he began to deploy troops into the second-largest city in the United States. Trump may be trying to bait protesters by having troops roving throughout Washington in hopes that it will create the type of unrest that happened in 2020 and in Los Angeles. But the numbers show he might come to regret that. Voters may not like disorder and crime but they dislike overzealous responses from the government even more. Solve the daily Crossword
