Exclusive | Former owner of PNut, pet squirrel decapitated by NY, is detained by ICE but husband says arrest is mistake
The former owner of P’Nut — the viral internet squirrel who was taken and decapitated by state officials — has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), her husband said.Daniela Bittler, 30, a German native, has been in federal custody in “deplorable conditions” for nearly a month at various detention centers across the country, her husband of four years, Mark Longo, told The Post.He claimed his wife was detained over a “minor issue” on her immigration paperwork.Bittler could be deported at any minute, Longo added, which would spell the end for their nonprofit “P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary,” where the couple keeps some 600 animals, including 100 horses.“She came into this country legally on a visa.We filed the paperwork and stuff and apparently the government is saying we filed the wrong piece of paper,” Longo said.“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,” he added.“This has been a nightmare to say the least.”Bittler, who has no criminal history, was hit with the maximum penalty, an administrative deportation, which means the Department of Homeland Security can ship a person back to their home country without a hearing, Longo said.The social media couple drove to Elmira airport in upstate New York on Oct.
16 to board a plane to attend a TikTok event, but as they got out of the car, they were swarmed by plainclothes officers who refused to identify themselves, he said.Agents whisked her away, and she has since been moved to detention centers in Syracuse to Buffalo to Louisiana and then Texas.Bittler also wears 24-hour contacts and was not able to get a new pair for more than two weeks, “which almost pulled her retinas off her eyeballs,” Longo said.“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.DH...