The animal rights group PETA wants to replace Punxsutawney Phil, the beloved groundhog that is used to forecast weather during the annual Groundhog Day celebration in Pennsylvania, with a gold coin, the group said this week.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wrote an open letter on Monday to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club in Pennsylvania, in which they encouraged its president, Tom Dunkel, to remove the animal from the celebration. Should he formally retire Phil and take him to a sanctuary, then PETA would present the group with “a giant coin,” they said in the letter.
“Beyond a shadow of a doubt, a groundhog’s weather prediction is no more accurate than flipping a coin,” the animal rights group said. “He is not a meteorologist and deserves better than to be exploited every year for tourism money.”
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It added: “Should kindness prevail, the huge coin could easily replace him as the Pennsylvania town’s gimmick to draw in tourists.”