Animal rights group: Replace Punxsutawney Phil with robot
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. — An animal rights group wants organizers of Pennsylvania’s Groundhog Day festival to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robotic stand-in.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it’s unfair to keep the animal in captivity and subject him to the huge crowds and bright lights that accompany tens of thousands of revelers each Feb. 2 in Punxsutawney, a tiny borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. PETA is suggesting the use of an animatronic model.
But William Deeley, president of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, says the animal is “being treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania.” The groundhog is kept in a climate-controlled environment and is inspected annually by the state Department of Agriculture.
Mr. Deeley says PETA isn’t interested in Phil from Feb. 2 on, and is looking for publicity.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10027/1031375-100.stm?cmpid=MOSTEMAILEDBOX#ixzz0dy2kX0rW
Here’s the issue from PETA on their blog, plus the letter they sent to the Groundhog’s handlers here
Excerpt:
“The popularity of using technologically advanced electromechanical devices such as animatronic animals instead of live animals is rising. Performances such as “Walking With Dinosaurs, the Live Experience”—a theatrical show in which animatronic dinosaurs roar, stomp, and chase each other around an arena—have been taking audiences by storm. Other popular exhibitions have featured robotic penguins and dolphins who swim and communicate just like real animals do, and we think that an animatronic groundhog would similarly mesmerize a crowd full of curious spectators in Punxsutawney.”
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Well, I can see this coming. Punxsutawney has told PETA to bugger off, and now PETA will show up next Tuesday and make some sort of idiotic protest to get news media attention.
In other news, I hear Phil Jones may soon be available. If he saw his shadow it would be six more months of avoiding FOI requests.
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Phil is ready and waiting for PETA:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rLUktHCzU-s/SmowrQ64U9I/AAAAAAAAA4k/eL8Hdbs9eCc/s400/aggressive+groundhog.bmp
Don’t drive angry!
But wouldn’t a robot leave a carbon footprint ?
The heretics.
tsk tsk
Thank you Bulldust. I laughed out loud, but would have hurt myself rolling on the floor. So I just had to tell my wife instead.
These are the same people who claim that biomedical research using animals has no value or that it can be replaced by computer models. They are not interested in animal welfare, only animal rights, including the right of mountain lions to eat joggers and, presumably small children, though they may draw the line at poodles.
Based on the AO forecast, Phil will definitely see his shadow.
http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao.sprd2.gif
Neat trick to play on PETA person arrived to “save” the groundhog. Exchange the groundhog with a badger. Then direct the PETA person to remove the “groundhog” from the nice warm nesting box. And just for shitzal and giggles, tell ’em that groundhogs don’t like gloves.
Once had a pair of badgers chase me into the cold Wallowa River. Apparently they were upset that I was minding me own business fishing along a public river. Turned out that badgers can SWIM!
I can see this poor groundhog waiting in line at the unemployment office bemoaning the fact that he lost his job due to automation. Take heart Phil, I’m sure there will be a government jobs bill that will help you find work in a local burger joint.
Protesters Encouraging Tacky Animatronics.
PETA is a religion just like WWF, global warming and the like.
Can groundhogs be used to make a nice stew, or are they best roasted?
Can they be first cooked, then left over in the fridge, cut up into slices and used in lunchtime sandwiches?
Can the fur be used to make warm gloves?
Signed: Curious, Cold and Hungry.
a bit more comedy from Australian AGW-loving Govt’s Trade Minister, the same govt who is attempting to get its emissions trading scheme through parliament:
Our turn to whinge on Australia-London fares
In London, Trade Minister Simon Crean has urged Britain to scrap its latest “green tax” rise on airfares, arguing it discriminates against people travelling to Australia…
“We’ve indicated to the Government that whilst this was originally said to be a duty for environmental purposes it’s now accepted that it’s just for revenue raising purposes,” Mr Crean said…
http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/our-turn-to-whinge-on-australialondon-fares-20100127-my94.html
I think we’d all be better off if we could replace everyone in PETA with an animatronic replacement….
Mike Bryant (20:27:23) :
I think we’d all be better off if we could replace everyone in PETA with an animatronic replacement….
I would like to see all NGOs corporatised and subject to corporate rules of disclosure and taxation…
Wouldn’t that evoke a great wailing and gnashing of teeth?
Well if they can’t use him (Phil) might as well eat him. Fair use?
Outside of the big cities PA. is pretty much a pro hunting state so I don’t see PETA having too many fans in the area to help them.
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/701160/2009_2010_hunting_annual_full_pdf
At long last PETA, have you no decency? Have you no shame? Can you not consider the traditions and customs of your countrymen?
Can you not respect the ancient history of your own species who survived the Ice Age only by eating animals and wearing their hides for warmth?
At long, long last can you not have just a little compassion for your fellow human beings?
contradictory poll and outright lie?
Reuters: Richard Cowan and Timothy Gardner: Editing by Paul Simao: U.S. embraces Copenhagen pact, Senators rework bill
A new poll by the Yale Project on Climate Change and George Mason University concluded that fewer people believe global warming is occurring. But it also said more people now fear it could harm their families and future generations…
(Republican Senator Lindsey ) Graham said cap-and-dividend, which would mandate carbon emission reductions while limiting the trading of pollution permits, is under review along with other options. Under that system, polluters would be required to buy carbon credits in auctions and consumers would receive most proceeds.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60R5F520100128?type=politicsNews
consumers will benefit???
No no, I’d rather see the animatronic dinosaurs replaced with real ones!
I’m looking forward to watching that cheesy Bill Murray movie next week…
Mike Bryant (20:27:23) :
I think we’d all be better off if we could replace everyone in PETA with an animatronic replacement….
What makes you think they aren’t animatronic already? They do seem to have the same unwavering responses to everything. Maybe the model should be upgraded?
Reminds me of the time Jack Hanna (the zookeeper that sometimes shows up on late night talk shows with his animals) came to my home town of Ann Arbor to do a show. We took my two little girls and they were very excited. When we got to the theater there were two female protesters. One held a sign that said something like “Jack Hanna is abusing animals” or something like that. The other one — and I kid you not — was sitting on the sidewalk in a tiny little cage. Pointing to the one in the cage, I said to my wife (just loud enough for them to hear): “Look honey… it’s the rare North American Killjoy.”
Sorry, but I agree with PETA on this one. I am appalled that so many who claim to be enlightened are so callous. No animal should be mistreated for any reason, including so called medical research (also known as doing anything for research grants).
Does being a AGW skeptic now mean one has to approve of animal research, cruelty to animals, and the rest? Is a majority of AGW skeptics now in the bible thumper camp, screaming that animals don’t have souls? Nobody told me, and I don’t believe it. I think the skeptical side is being hijacked by the same right-wing know-it-alls who have hijacked so many other good, non-political causes and ruined them. Look what they did to the pro-life movement in a matter of a few months (in the early 1980s); turning it from a respected human rights movement into a fundamentalist Christian loony bin, ridiculed by everyone except for religious fanatics. These people destroy everything they touch.
Must skeptics march in step to a single drum?
I’ve been an AGW skeptic for years, and I can’t stand Obama, but I cannot stand animal abusers even more. For all its awful faults, PETA does more good than many organizations, and there are few alternatives to it. George Bush and Dick Cheney shooting captive tame animals on canned “hunts” do not speak for me or my beliefs or values, but evidently many people cannot think for themselves.
Please do not let AGW skepticism become yet another platform for the right wing Pat Robertson egomaniac crowd. Climate change should never have been politicized, and these people are every bit as hidebound, intolerant, and arrogant as those they ridicule on the other side.
Perhaps this is reason to bring back the Robot Commando: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fErCtYb_9uM
If a superior being from another planet came to earth, told me they needed me to be their pet on their world and in exchange for being able to explore living on another planet through captivity in their domicile and occasional outings to their versions of camping or visiting the beach I would be provided with a lifelong mate and all the food I would ever need… and in addition to this, I would never have to ever even think about the stupid things that humans back on earth spend their time thinking about protecting to absolve their unnecessarily pained consciences instead of spending time with their kids or being more productive at work…
I would say yes, sign me up for that rocket ride and take me off this crazy 3rd rock from a dull star where PETA and their up-side-down-prioritized ilk are allowed to reproduce their large batches of cognitive dissonance infecting even the smart among us and get away with it for decades as some kind of protected species of deliberate retardation. At the very least I wont be living on a planet where the intellectually dominant species is so afraid of itself that it pretends to care about the planet in a fashion that can only lead to suicide for an entire species.
[REPLY – Better check out their attitude toward/methods of neutering and spaying, first, though, just to be on the safe side . . . ~ Evan]
I hope Canada will ban PETA from Canada under the terrorist act because one of their member attached one of our Member of Parliament last week with a shaving cream pie.