NO MORE PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL?
PETA CALLS AN ARTIFICIAL GROUNDHOG ‘LONG OVERDUE’
For well over a century, the weather-predicting ritual on Feb. 2 has remained more or less the same: In the forests of western Pennsylvania, a group of bearded men in black top hats and suits lifts one very famous groundhog from a stump, high up into the air.
If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, the legend goes, there will be six more weeks of winter. If not, expect an early spring.
But ahead of Phil’s annual forecast on Sunday, the world’s largest animal rights organization is calling for the meteorological marmot to retire.
“Times change. Traditions evolve,” wrote Ingrid Newkirk, president and founder of PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, in a letter to Phil’s handlers. Instead of using a live animal, she said, the group should turn to artificial intelligence. It would renew interest in the event and allow the groundhog to dig, burrow and forage in peace.
“By creating an AI Phil, you could keep Punxsutawney at the centre of Groundhog Day but in a much more progressive way,” she wrote. “Talk about taking your town’s annual tradition in a fresh and innovative direction!”
While at least nine other groundhogs around the U.S. attempt to predict the weather via shadow, Phil is the most famous. Tens of thousands of visitors descend on Punxsutawney, a small town about 130 kilometres northeast of Pittsburgh, to watch the ceremony every year.
The 1993 Bill Murray film Groundhog Day arguably cemented the fame of both Phil and his home, where the yearly tradition has been carried on by the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.
“For 134 years, we’ve done something right to keep attracting people and keep them coming,” club President Bill Deeley told Washington Post on Tuesday night. “Why would they make a movie about it all if we did something wrong?”
Tracy Reiman, PETA’S executive vice president, noted in a statement that “gentle, vulnerable groundhogs are not barometers.”
“PETA is offering the club a winwin situation: Breathe life into a tired tradition and finally do right by a long-suffering animal,” she said.
Phil is no ordinary groundhog. To start, there’s his age: The average groundhog lives for four to six years, but Deeley insists that Phil is 134 years old. It’s the result of the mysterious elixir the groundhog drinks every summer, each gulp of which extends his lifespan by seven years at a time. (The Post was unable to independently verify Phil’s age or the existence of said elixir.)
Then, there’s his schedule: While most woodchucks hibernate all winter, Phil remains semiactive, if a bit sleepy, in a temperature-controlled habitat attached to the Punxsutawney Memorial Library. When he’s not making the rounds of local schools, he and a female companion named Phyllis receive frequent visitors in preparation for his big day on Feb. 2.
“Being in close proximity to the public causes these animals great stress,” Newkirk said in the letter. “When Phil is dragged out of his hole and held up to flashing lights and crowds, he has no idea what’s happening.”
Deeley said that Phil’s burrow undergoes an inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at least once a year. He’s fed a healthy, satisfying diet of kale, bananas and carrots, plus granola bars to keep his two front teeth from getting too sharp.
If he wasn’t eating well, Phil would not be able to maintain his rotund shape or his fluffy coat of fur, Deeley said. And if he didn’t love being the centre of attention, he would not take in the crowds so stoically every year.
“If he’s so fearful of the cameras, if he’s so fearful of us and of the crowds, why doesn’t he make an attempt to run away?” Deeley said.
PETA’S proposal, however, is not only about saving the animals. It’s about bringing the long-standing tradition into the 21st century.
A robotic rodent could replicate the popularity of Sony’s artificial “Aibo” dog, Newkirk said, while AI technology affixed to the creature could “actually predict the weather” — perhaps more accurately than Phil.
The famous woodchuck has had a poor record of success when it comes to guessing the weather for February and March, according to a 2015 Post analysis, and his accuracy largely depends on what part of the country you are in.
Still, Deeley was unconvinced, just like crowds who might come across an electronically controlled bear or tiger at the zoo, he said.
“Imagine if he was an animated little creature outside where you put in a dollar and he waves at you,” Deeley said. “That’s not what people want to see, and that’s not what our community wants either.”
Historically, the real-life groundhog has drawn broad support. As many as 30,000 people have descended on Punxsutawney in recent years, in what Phil himself called “the best all-night party in Pennsylvania,” according to the groundhog club’s website.