As Groundhog Day approaches (the actual day, not the movie), Bill Deeley, the president of the Punxsutawney, PA Groundhog Club has been presented with a proposition by PETA. The group wants to replace the legendary Punxsutawney Phil (or at least, the latest one) with a robot.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treament of Animals) sent a letter to Bill Deeley with the idea. Groundhog Day is Feb. 2nd, and it is the day celebrated in Canada and the U.S. where, if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day fails to see its shadow, it will leave the burrow, which means that winter will soon end. Otherwise, there will be six more weeks of winter.
Punxsutawney Phil is perhaps the most famous of these Groundhog Day "seers," although there are others that are famous. Other famouse groundhog predictors include General Beauregard Lee, Staten Island Chuck and Wiarton Willie.
Of course, PETA picked on Groundhog Day's biggest name for its suggestion. Interestingly, comments at their site seem to indicate not all are in favor of this suggestion.
After all, Phil lives a pretty lush life for a groundhog, at least. In fact, as Phil(s) die, they simply get a new groundhog, and those groundhogs are probably not in the best shape to be released into the wild. They've been pampered all their lives and they wouldn't survive without some retraining.
How accurate are these rodents? Not too accurate, according to Wikipedia. Groundhog Day advocates assert that the forecasts are accurate 75 to 90 percent of the time. However, a Canadian study done for 13 cities in the past 30 to 40 years puts success rate level at 37 percent, and the National Climatic Data Center reportedly has stated that the overall accuracy rate is around 39 percent.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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