Photo by ekelly80

Animal rights organization PETA has long been for its inventive and attention-grabbing public campaigns. Locally, it has locked women in cages to protest fur, deployed a large inflatable elephant to advocate against the circus and offered a free vasectomy to any man who neutered his dog.

So it wasn’t any surprise when a PETA protester dressed as a raccoon appeared at today’s inaugural Groundhog Day celebration in Dupont Circle holding a sign that said, “Buy a crystal ball. Leave Wildlife Alone!” Even though our own Potomac Phil was merely a stuffed groundhog, the group still wanted to make its position known on the country’s most famous rodent and the day dedicated to his weather prognostications.

“We know that there are a lot of cities that are unfortunately using live animals in Groundhog Day celebrations or for other celebrations,” said senior campaigner Ashley Byrne.

“Too often these animals are living their lives either in very unnatural surroundings, and leading very unpleasant lives only to be brought out once a year and shoved into a loud situation while the animals should be living their lives in peace in as natural a surrounding as possible. There are so many alternatives that can be used for these celebrations…costumes, mascots, the raccoon that we had today in Dupont. There’s so many alternatives to using live animals,” she added.

Aaron DeNu, who organized today’s celebration, seemed sensitive enough to the plight of the groundhog when he learned that their “profound hibernation” lasts until around the second week of February. “The whole thing is we want to do this humanely. We didn’t want to go disturb a groundhog’s hibernation,” he told the Huffington Post. (He also decided against the only thing the National Zoo said he could borrow — a prairie dog.)

Punxsutawney Phil isn’t so lucky, though, and in recent years PETA even went so far as to propose that a robot groundhog be used in his stead to avoid rousing him from his slumber. To fans of the Pennsylvania-based celebration, the whole idea is ridiculous — after all, what groundhog wouldn’t want to be the object of such attention and affection?

Byrne didn’t have any complaints about D.C.’s small celebration, but she did say that she’d want to talk to DeNu if he did manage to rustle up a real groundhog for next year.

“I think that if it did look like that was going to happen, we’d probably try and get in touch ahead of time to discuss all the other options that are out there and that are fun and festive, and where everyone is a willing participant,” she said.