Staten Islands version of Puxatawny Phil, named Chuck, died sometime after being mishandled by Mayor de Blasio on Feb 2nd. The mayor dropped him and he fell six fet. (There’s a snarky metaphor in there involving progressive Mayors of NYC and a Bill Murray movie about reliving the same mistakes over and over but I’m trying to keep this short.) The Groundhogs autopsy proved the cause of death was consistent with injuries caused by the fall.
Groundhogs probably prefer shorter mayors, if I had to guess
No one told the mayor Chuck died from several days after he dropped “him.’. And no one admitted that the Chuck that died was actually Charlotte. Charlotte was a stand in. Chuck bit mayor Bloomberg and they didn’t want him biting de Blasio. The zoo gets millions in funding from the city. You can’t have temperamental Groundhogs nipping at tempermental progressive mayors. So Charlotte made the ultimate sacrifice and the cover up began.
The mayor’s office only learned about the death after reading about it in the New York Post, many months later.