FILE PHOTO: U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks at a campaign event of Republican vice presidential nominee U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) in Lindale, Georgia, U.S., October 4, 2024. REUTERS/Megan Varner/File Photo
Kathleen Culliton is Raw Story's managing editor. She's been covering local and national news for more than a decade for outlets that include the New York Post, Al Jazeera, DNAinfo New York, Bustle, the New York Daily News, WNYC, NY1, City Limits and the New York City Patch. Kathleen is a proud alumna of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
"Trump's running against a socialistic, big government control everything about you woke regime," Collins said. "This thing's gotten so bad that they're killing the pets, they're killing the squirrels, they're killing the raccoons."
Greene had more detail to provide.
"Democrats in New York City went in and raided a home to kill a squirrel," Greene said. "They did — to kill a squirrel."
The lawmakers are apparently referring to a
CBS News report Saturday about a social media famous squirrel named Peanut seized by state wildlife officials who said it was illegal and dangerous to keep wild creatures as pets.
The raid was not in New York City, as Greene suggested, but in Pine City, according to the report.
New York's Department of Environmental Conservation seized the squirrel and a pet raccoon named Fred, according to CBS.
Both animals presented a risk of spreading rabies to humans, and after the squirrel bit a DEC worker, were euthanized to test for the fatal disease, officials told CBS News.
As Greene and Collins would have it, this is why voters should vote for Trump.
Interestingly, both lawmakers appeared in a line-up that included Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who has herself faced criticisms of
exerting extreme control over animals in her state.
Local father Dustin Maybee reported in May that his little girl was no longer allowed in the family chicken coop because the starving birds had started eating each other.
The abrupt closure of an Arkansas chicken company had left state farmers responsible for birds they could not sell — and Sanders' administration refused to declare a state of emergency or send needed cash to subsidize lost business, he told Politico.
Sanders' administration opted instead to euthanize more than one million birds by smothering them to death with foam; a move Bryan King, a farmer and Republican state senator, described as “the most communist thing I’ve ever seen.”
“It was just horrible," said Maybee. "I couldn’t afford any help."