Next Tuesday, Punxsutawney Phil is scheduled to emerge from Gobbler’s Knob to make his yearly winter weather prognostication but if PETA gets their way a robotic stand-in would do the job instead.

In a letter sent to Bill Deeley, the President of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, PETA suggests retiring the iconic Phil and replacing him with an animatronic version.

Drawing from the success of “Walking With Dinosaurs, the Live Experience,” PETA’s Animals in Entertainment Specialist Gemma Vaughan says, “We think that an animatronic groundhog would similarly mesmerize a crowd full of curious spectators in Punxsutawney.”

Meanwhile Phil would spend the rest of his life in an animal sanctuary possibly with other retired groundhogs.

It is not clear if Mr. Deeley and the rest of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club are planning to commission an animatronics specialist to create the new Robo-Phil. Although TDIV thinks this is highly unlikely.