The demand: ending a 137-year-old tradition

Groundhog Day is celebrated annually on February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

It involves the Punxsutawney Phil badger emerging from his pot – and if he sees his shadow, it's said that means spring is another six weeks away.

Punxsutawney Phil became world famous with the movie “Monday allweek” from 1993, in which Bill Murray ends up in a time loop when he has to report on Groundhog Day and is forced to experience the same day over and over again.

“Phil is not a meteorologist.”

The Groundhog Day tradition surrounding Punxsutawney Phil, though of course the groundhog is replaced from time to time, has been going on since 1887. But animal rights organization PETA now wants to put an end to the tradition.

“Phil is not a meteorologist and deserves better than to be exploited every year for tourism dollars.” PETA wrote in a letter to Tom Dunkle, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

The organization wrote that marmots are “shy” animals that “do not want to live in captivity where they cannot do any of the things that are natural and important to them.”

“They don't want to be used to forecast the weather, exposed to camera flashes, human touch, or noisy crowds of onlookers.”“Beta writes.

You want to exchange marmots for coins

The Groundhog Club claims on its website that Phil is 100 percent accurate in his “predictions.” But in reality, Punxsutawney Phil was “right” only 39 percent of the time, according to the report. Stormfax weather calendar.

PETA claims that a single coin will have as high a chance of being right as an elephant.

So they offer to send a “huge coin” to Punxsutawney as compensation for Phil, who they are urging the town to move to an animal sanctuary. The idea is that the city will “single out” the coin instead of Phil's “expectations.”