PETA wants to replace Punxsutawney Phil with coin toss

The animal rights group PETA wants to replace Punxsutawney Phil, the iconic Groundhog Day weather forecaster, with a gold coin.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s president Tom Dunkel urging him to swap out Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog for a gold coin on next Friday’s Groundhog Day. PETA called for Punxsutawney Phil to be allowed to live the rest of his life at a sanctuary.

The group argued Phil’s weather predictions are no more reliable than a coin toss.

“Groundhogs can’t make heads or tails of the weather forecast and shouldn’t be jostled around by large members of a different species and thrust in front of noisy crowds for a photo op,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement. “PETA is urging The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club to send Phil to a reputable sanctuary that will give him the care he needs and not treat him as a wildlife prop.”

The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, which was established in 1887, includes a 15-member inner circle “whose task it is to protect and perpetuate the legend of the great weather-predicting groundhog Punxsutawney Phil,” according to the organization’s website.

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Each year, the club hosts events on Feb. 2 at Gobblers Knob, culminating in the groundhog’s 7:20 a.m. prediction of whether it will be an early spring or six more weeks of winter.

This isn’t the first time PETA has suggested retiring Punxsutawney Phil from his meteorology duties. The organization in the past has offered to provide a human replacement who would live in Phil’s small enclosure and make “unscientific weather predictions” or to plant a persimmon tree, whose seeds are believed to indicate the weather ahead.

The group said groundhogs are naturally shy animals that enjoy burrowing, exploring and hibernating. The beloved groundhog, they argue, is unable to do those things in the enclosure where he resides at a local library.