Mayor de Blasio won’t be killing any mꦿore furry forecasters.
Staten Island Zoo officials — whom The Post exposed for covering up the death of a female ground𒉰hog posing as Chuck — want to stop letting butter-fingered politicians handle the critter d♎uring Groundhog Day festivities.
“It’s being discussed wh🦄ether we should do some process wit✃h the next Chuck on February 2, whether he should actually be physically transferred from one handler to another,” zoo spokesman Brian Morris said Thursday.
“Ma🌱ybe he should just be displayed emerging or not emerging from his enclosur💦e.”
Embarrassed zoo honchos were forced to rethink rulꦰes on Thursday when The Post revealed that the groundhog de Blasio fumbled on Feb. 2 died from internal injuries 🎀a week later.
Morris first tried pin the Groundꦚhog Day debacle on then-newbie handler Kristin Campbell.
She “may not have been forceful enough” in placing the groundhog in de Blasio’s hands, preventing the mayor from getting a good grip, Morris told The Associated Press.🍎
He later claimed to a pack of reporters that the zoo didn’t announce the death o🔯f Staten Island Chuck, who was actually a female stand-in named Charlotte, because there are too many animals to keep track of.
There a💃re 1,500 animals here. We do not notify the public about every single 💟death that comes up — we just don’t do it.
- Brian Morris
“There are 1,500 animals here. We do not notify the public about every single 🍬death that comes up — we just don’t do it,” Morri♎s said.
To🏅 add insult to injury, poor Charlot🎃te wasn’t given a proper burial — and was simply “disposed of,” Morris said.
The zoo generally has four groundhogs on hand and is careful which one �♏�gets chosen to play the part of Chuck.
“It’s usually 🌠whichever groundhog is thღe least grouchy that day,” Morris told AP.
“[February] is 🤡a tim💧e of year when genetics tell them to be hibernating. They can be in a bad mood.”
Politicians and dignitaries who have atꦐtended the shadow-or-no𝕴-shadow party were furious over the zoo’s effort to hide the death.
“The true circumstances of the animal’s death should not have been withheld from the publi🧸c,” said state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-SI).
Council Minority Leader Vincent Ignizio🃏 (R-SI) agreed with the z⛄oo’s proposed policy change.
“The Groundhog Day ceremony at the Staten Island Zoo is an extremely popular national event, and the profes🐽sionals there do a great job with an animal that — as we have all 🍰seen — can be very difficult to handle,” he said.
“But for that reason, I think the handling of the groundhog may be best left to profe🌳ssionals.”
Additional reporting by Tara Palmeri and Sophia Rosenbaum