Due to the blue flu, the groundhog will not have police protection and will be placed in protective custody.
Via NRO
…. Mayor de Blasio won’t be killing any more groundhogs — zoo handlers are forbidding the butter-fingered mayor from holding the critter at the annual shadow-sighting ceremony on Feb. 2, The Post has learned.
The ban came after The Post first revealed that the groundhog de Blasio fumbled and dropped last year died a week later of internal injuries — and then Staten Island Zoo officials covered up the death. . . .
“No one will be allowed to touch the groundhog,” one zoo insider briefed on the new policy told The Post.
The groundhog will be placed in a comfy glass or plexiglass box for the ceremony, sources said.