PETA is advocating for the retirement of Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog known for predicting the weather in the U.S. every year. Instead, they propose the use of a giant coin as a replacement for the "exploited" animal.
The animal rights group has written a letter to Tom Dunkel, the president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, asking them to substitute the traditional groundhog with a large coin for the Groundhog Day celebration on February 2nd.
PETA expressed that the person in question is not a meteorologist and they believe he should be treated with more respect instead of being used solely for generating tourism revenue.
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PETA approached the club in 2022 with a suggestion to replace Phil, the groundhog, with a persimmon tree for weather predictions.
According to Ingrid Newkirk, the president of PETA, Phil is skilled in digging underground, searching for food, and living in accordance with his natural instincts rather than being knowledgeable about weather patterns.
PETA is advocating for the groundhog club to start February 2nd in a more compassionate way by allowing Phil and his companion to be sent to a trustworthy sanctuary. In this sanctuary, Phil can live a life free from stress and being handled and spun around, and he can finally exhibit natural behaviors that he has been deprived of in his current Plexiglas enclosure.
For over a century, people from the local community and visitors from various places have made their way to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to witness the annual event where a small creature named Phil comes out of his temporary dwelling. Depending on whether he sees his shadow or not, it predicts either six additional weeks of winter or an early arrival of spring.
The film titled Groundhog Day, featuring Bill Murray as a frustrated weatherman who finds himself trapped in an endless cycle of time, was made available to the public in the year 199
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