PETArded in Pennsylvania

So, PETA wants the town of Punxsutawney to stop using actual groundhogs to predict the weather, and wrote town officials, claiming that doing so is cruel:

Gemma Vaughan, an Animals in Entertainment Specialist with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, wrote in the letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club saying keeping Punxsutawney Phil on display year-round is a "cruel" way to treat the animal, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Wednesday.

"Make the compassionate decision to use an animatronic Phil and retire the live groundhogs who are used for Groundhog Day activities to a sanctuary," Vaughan wrote. "Tradition is no excuse for cruelty."

So, someone picks him up once a year, determines whether or not he's supposedly seen his shadow, and he gets his picture taken by a bunch of reporters who would probably rather be somewhere else, and that's somehow animal cruelty?

Bill Deeley, the president of the town's Groundhog Club (which is likely the most powerful and influential Groundhog Club in the country) doesn't seem to think so...

"Phil is probably treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania," Deeley said. "He's got air conditioning in the summer, his pen is heated in winter...He has everything but a TV in there. What more do you want?"

The average kid in Pennsylvania doesn't have heating, air conditioning, or teevee? Damn, and here I thought California was a hellhole.