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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Hey, Anton, can you remember a time in your life when you identified with a winner?
Cheney shot a lawyer. Doesn’t that count on the positive side?
The statistics show that the Punxsutawney Phil has been right only 39% of the time… that is way better than the MET Office.
Pamela Gray:
Originally being from Wisconsin myself, I could have told you not to mess with badgers. Lol!
Oh Anton, give it a rest. These groundhogs are NOT being mistreated. Let’s not get into this thing about coddling animals. They aren’t human, they just aren’t. Please.
We already have a famous robotic groundhog here in PA.
http://www.character-shop.com/gus.html
It would be wrong to have 2 famous robotic groundhogs in the same state…just wrong.
Jeezus, get a life, dude.
Neither are many humans.
Anthony, I don’t think he was aiming that at you, but at Anton’s post above 😉
Hey mr.artday, I am a winner, and I don’t identify with you. Go figure.
By the way, the last time I looked, the Pat Robertson crowd was losing on virtually every issue.
AGW skepticism does not belong to anyone or any ideology. And skepticism is a good thing, especially regarding religions and their claims. Since nobody can offer any defence of cruelty to animals other than hateful, pompous religious arguments, I would say I’m definitely on the winning side.
No Larry, I am not being satirical.
Yes, Pamela, Cheney shooting another “sportsman” was a great thing. Too bad he didn’t shoot himself.
“Oh Anton, give it a rest. These groundhogs are NOT being mistreated. Let’s not get into this thing about coddling animals.” –Larry
Define “mistreated.”
“They aren’t human, they just aren’t. Please.” –Larry
And that’s a liability because . . . ? Don’t tell me. You think YOU are the highest life-form in the Universe? Good luck with that.
Groundhog tends to be a bit fatty, so they work best in stews where the potatoes can soak up some of the fat. Not too good as sandwich material.
I think they make better hats than gloves. The skin side isn’t as tough as deerhide and the fur isn’t as soft as bunnies.
Control freak organizations like PETA, Green Peace, and the WWF should be shamed out of existence. Shame them with your superior intellect.
Poor Phil. All those patriotic years of service, and now the animal rights group wants to rob Phil of his Climate Service benefits. No, you can’t steal food from the groundhog. Go gather your own nuts.
Yeah, that might work! Most of these eco-loonies seem like they’ve never actually met animals, let alone wild ones.
I was hiking with some in Germany once (eco-loonies, not animals) and they were in total awe of everything they saw. Musta been their first experience outdoors.
We happened upon a farm with big honking (pun intended) geese in the yard, where upon one of them remarked, “Oh look at the pretty ducks!”
I recommended that they go pet the pretty ducks.
They tried.
I laughed my a$$ off!
Hey Ray, pieing politicians is a great Canadian tradition! What next, take fighting out of hockey?
🙂
Well Anton, I keep a cat in captivity. I know, I should be ashamed. All she gets is unlimited food and water, warmth in winter and coolness in summer, a life completely free of conflict, nice places to sleep, regular brushings, the occasional bath, and happiness.
I really should do the right thing, and let her out onto the lake where she can be eaten by coyotes. That would be the “natural” thing, I think.
I will never, ever understand people who listen to, follow, or associate with PETA. They are a terror organization by all definitions. Animals are not people. I know pet owners, hunters, chefs, and ranchers, and have yet to meet anyone who has ever been cruel to an animal.
As Phil Jones has stepped down for a while at CRU perhaps he could do it this year? He could use a special “trick” to make sure he gets the forecast right….
Andy
This post is just silly, and I am sure it was done mainly because the pics are so cute. One star for content, 5 stars for the pics.
REPLY: Well, you’ve pretty well summed up what I think about Groundhog day. If rodents were meant to forecast, they would have been equipped with barometers. -A
Anton (20:54:10) :
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?
—…—…
Anton- Have you ever been to actually SEE the living enclosure )heated, vented, waste removed daily, swept-out, well-lit, safe from predators, fed daily, watered continuously, and veterinarian-medicated!) that this varmit actually lives in?
I’ve been to that enclosure (the center of a small park in “downtown” Pax…. Beautiful little single-critter “zoo”. Nice place. Better than what my great-parents lived in.
You want to throw him out to freeze to death, starved or todying by internal parasites and blinded by rabies or eaten by dogs/coyotes/wolves/cats/rats/wildcats? /cougars? (In other words – you want him to die miserably just like every OTHER groundhog in the world? Just so YOU can “feel good” about “freeing” another living creature to die horribly?)
Leo G (22:12:53) :
I know, but the woman that did the pieing was American from New York… she had no right in taking our right away of pieing our politicians… she should go to Washington DC… there are plenty of corrupt politicians there to pie (except in that case she might not survive it through).
Hey PETA, I think I will go cull myself a seal. Our Governor General said it was delicious.
At last, a sign of global warming… April Fool’s Day has come early this year. 😀
As regards discussion on (mis)treatment of animals above, it reminds me of Konrad Lorenz who once wrote something along the lines of ‘many people pretend to love animals when in fact they simply hate humans’. As far as I remember, it was in the preface to one of his books.
More PETA posturing.
If you don’t look too close at the groundhog (or are too far away to clearly see that it’s a groundhog), it might appear that they’re pulling someone’s well overfed cat out and holding it high for all to see.
Perhaps PETA needs to leave their warm city apartments and venture out into the really rural countryside and observe how animals live – darting about in a state of fear trying to find food and, when eating, constantly watching lest they themselves become another animal’s meal. Punxsutawney Phil has got it good.
Anthony/Moderators. Do you know of an e-mail address where I could let the people who keep this tradition alive know that I support their use of a real groundhog? I’m sure they get lots of e-mails condemning what they do. I’d like them to get more e-mails telling them to ignore the PETA crowd.
Pamela Gray (20:07:47) : “Neat trick to play on PETA person arrived to “save” the groundhog. Exchange the groundhog with a badger….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!”
Badgers? We don’t need no steenkin’ badgers!
Anton –
I would ask YOU to define “mistreated,” since you are the one who in effect was alleging it. Nevertheless, the poor animal is not being unnecessarily cut up, fed with chemicals, shot, beaten, or otherwise physically abused, starved, or injured. The idea that he is being paraded around, handled, and televised – well, maybe if paparazzi were following him around all of the time like a movie star, that might qualify (lol) – that in my mind doesn’t count as mistreatment.
And if in fact you DON’T think you are the highest life form in the universe, I feel sorry for you. I would expect you have enough of a human brain to reason these things out properly. Given the fact that we are supposed to be the stewards of this planet to any degree, we’d best think of ourselves as the highest life form. If we don’t, there will be a lot of consequences to pay for it.