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In an open letter to the president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Jeff Lundy, PETA suggests replacing Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog.
"As you know, Phil is certainly not a real meteorologist and didn’t volunteer for this job. For far too long, he’s been dragged out of a fake tree stump and subjected to noise, flashing lights, and crowds, against all of his natural instincts,” PETA wrote in their letter to Lundy less than one week before the big day.
“We’d also be happy to send you a persimmon tree to plant in Gobbler’s Knob so that you could hold a ceremony to check the seeds annually. (They’re said to be accurate in predicting the weather 25% of the time, not too far off from Phil’s average.),” the group wrote.
Last year the group called for Phil to be replaced with an animatronic version of the groundhog so science could play a role in the weather report, as WJAC reported at the time.
Apparently that idea is still something they want considered, “And of course, our offer still stands to donate a state-of-the-art animatronic groundhog with artificial intelligence that could actually predict the weather,” PETA wrote.
You can read more about PETA's views of one of Pennsylvania's most popular holidays here.
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