PETA Offers Vegan Cake Alternative to Punxsutawney Phil's Groundhog Day Weather Forecast

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering to send a “weather reveal” vegan cake this year in lieu of Punxsutawney Phil forecasting the weather on Groundhog Day.

Animal rights group PETA is offering to send a weather-revealing vegan cake to Punxsutawney Phil this Groundhog Day, in lieu of the rodent predicting the weather.

Every year, PETA sends a letter to Punxsutawney Groundhog Club President Tom Dunkel, suggesting an alternative weather predicting method and offering to conclude Phil’s duties.

“When left to their own devices, groundhogs steer clear of humans, build elaborate networks of underground burrows, communicate with each other and even scale trees, but poor Phil is deprived of all that for a stale old carnival stunt,” Ingrid Newkirk, PETA president, said Tuesday.

The vegan cake alternative, a play on popular gender reveal videos, would be cut to reveal either blue, signifying six more weeks of winter, or pink, denoting an early spring, according to PETA.

The organization has previously offered to provide a gold coin for a coin toss or a human replacement who would live in Phil’s small enclosure and make “unscientific weather predictions.”

“Year after dull year, Phil is hauled up to Gobbler’s Knob, rushed onstage and forced to endure a noisy announcer, screaming crowds and flashing lights, all of which go against his natural instincts,” the letter continues. “If approached in his natural habitat, he would scurry away in fright — not volunteer to live year-round in captivity.”

If the cake isn’t enough, PETA included an alternative suggestion in this year’s letter.

“We’d be pleased to send you a large thermometer for Gobbler’s Knob that reads, ‘If it’s still cold, it’s still winter,’ which would aptly convey the ridiculousness of the current form of this tired old spectacle,” the letter reads. “We eagerly await your reply, as always.”

Groundhog Day festivities are set to take place on Sunday, Feb. 2 at Gobbler’s Knob — including Phil’s early morning weather prediction.