Groundhog Day is a silly annual tradition like many silly annual traditions: buying chocolate on Valentine’s Day, wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day, or bamboozling your friends on April Fools’ Day.
But, like those other cultural institutions, Groundhog Day is fun and, generally, harmless (unless New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is involved).
But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (the overzealous animal rights group that doesn’t want you to buy a dog cage or “bring home the bacon”) has taken a stance against Groundhog Day. This may be the most cantankerous anti-tradition attitude since Phil Connors got caught in a time loop in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
“Times change. Traditions evolve. It’s long overdue for Phil to be retired,” wrote PETA President Ingrid Newkirk in a letter to Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.
Instead, Newkirk proposed letting the woodchucking Phils of the world roam free and replacing them with artificial intelligence.
“Using technologically advanced electromechanical devices such as animatronics instead of live animals is more popular than ever,” she wrote. “We even have the technology to create an animatronic groundhog with artificial intelligence (AI) that could actually predict the weather. An AI Phil would renew interest in Punxsutawney, generating a great deal of buzz, much like Sony’s robot dog ‘Aibo,’ which walks, plays, misbehaves, and responds to commands.”
Perhaps PETA is right. The 134-year-old tradition could use some spicing up. At least the animal rights group isn’t calling for Groundhog Day to be scrapped altogether since, despite Connors’s thoughts on the matter, the event still draws thousands of visitors to Punxsutawney each year. At least a robotic groundhog would still have a shadow.
Deeley, however, isn’t too receptive to the idea of a technological update.
“Imagine if he was an animated little creature outside where you put in a dollar, and he waves at you,” he said. “That’s not what people want to see, and that’s not what our community wants, either.”
Or, as Connors says in the movie Groundhog Day, “Television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.”
So don’t expect to hear reports about anything but a live groundhog on Feb. 2, when Punxsutawney Phil will trot out to determine if he sees his shadow, which would supposedly give us six more weeks of winter.
In a world rife with technology, children and other groundhog fans want to see the real thing. But if the groundhog club’s leaders do keep a real woodchuck in their care, they must be sure to treat the little mammal well — and never give it to de Blasio.
