Put Punxsutawney Phil out to pasture and get a robot groundhog instead, PETA says
Animal rights activists are again trying to force the world’s most famous groundhog into retirement — but they say it’s for the creature’s own good.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is urging the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club in Pennsylvania to retire the critter named Punxsutawney Phil ahead of Sunday’s annual Groundhog Day prediction.
This is how the ritual works: If Phil emerges on Feb. 2 — the date Groundhog Day is observed — and sees his shadow because the skies are clear, then there will be six more weeks of winter. But if Phil can’t see his shadow, the superstition says that spring will come early.
PETA suggests the club send Phil off to “a reputable animal sanctuary” and replace him with an animatronic groundhog robot armed with artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence, PETA says, would create a groundhog “that could actually predict the weather.”
The animal group said in a letter to Groundhog Club president Bill Deeley that “being in close proximity to the public causes these animals great stress,” adding that when he is “dragged out of his hole and held up to flashing lights and crowds, he has no idea what’s happening.”
Deeley said that “the tradition of Groundhog Day goes back to 1886 when his German ancestors brought it to Punxsutawney,” according to WJAC.
“Gentle, vulnerable groundhogs are not barometers,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a statement Tuesday. “PETA is offering the club a win-win situation: Breathe life into a tired tradition and finally do right by a long-suffering animal.”
It’s not the first year PETA has called for Phil to be freed of his duties.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2010 — a full decade ago — that PETA’s “animals in entertainment specialist” penned a letter to the Groundhog Club lamenting that Phil was “forced to be on display year round at the local library and is denied the ability to prepare for and enter yearly hibernation.”
That year PETA suggested a robot as well.
TribLive reported Tuesday that “the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club had not responded to the letter as of Tuesday afternoon.”
Assuming the club doesn’t heed PETA’s advice this year either, what are the chances Phil sees his shadow in 2020?
“The odds suggest Punxsutawney Phil won’t get much of a glimpse of his shadow this year due to the thick snow forecast that day, which means an early spring for us all,” US-Bookies betting analyst Alex Donohue said, according to PennLive.
