The leftist animal rights organization PETA has suggested for Groundhog Day this year, the nation should ditch Punxsutawney Phil and rely on a vegan “weather reveal cake” to predict the weather instead.
The organization, which stands for “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,” said it sent a letter to Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s President Tom Dunkel and made him the “irresistible offer” of delivering what would resemble a gender reveal cake if his group was willing to “let Punxsutawney Phil and his family retire to a reputable sanctuary.”
“In a fun play on viral gender reveal videos, PETA’s tasty treat would be cut to expose one of two colors: blue, signifying six more weeks of winter, or pink, indicating an early spring,” the statement said.
The letter to Dunkel used numerous baking puns, saying the vegan cake “would allow you to still make tourism dough while showing Phil a slice of decency.”
“You batter believe that for Phil, Groundhog Day is no piece of cake,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote. “Groundhogs are shy prey animals who, when allowed, actively avoid humans. Yet, year after year, Phil is transported to Gobler’s Knob, whisked on stage, and subjected to a noisy announcer, screaming crowds, and flashing lights against all his natural instincts.”
She continued, “If approached in his natural habitat, he would run away in fear, not volunteer to live year-round in captivity, unable to do anything that’s natural and important to him like hibernate or burrow—just to be a town’s once-a-year fake meteorologist.”
This isn’t the first time PETA tried to stop the Groundhog Day tradition by pitching an alternative. In 2024, it suggested flipping a giant coin rather than seeing if Phil saw his shadow. Two years earlier, the group had suggested using an animatronic replica of the groundhog.
The tradition of using a groundhog to predict whether the nation would experience an early spring or have six more weeks of winter originated with German settlers who brought the tradition of Candlemas to America in the 1700s.
Punxsutawney Phil is the official weather-predicting groundhog who emerges each year on February 2 to make his prediction in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to around 20,000 fans who gather for the occasion.
