Groundhog dropped by de Blasio died a week later
By Joe Tacopino, Carl Campanile and Natalie O'Neill
September 25, 2014 | 1:14am



Mayor de Blasio has groundhog blood on his hands!

A week after Hizzoner dropped Staten Island Chuck in front of a crowd of spectators on Feb. 2, the winter-weather prognosticator died of internal injuries — and then the coverup began, The Post has learned.
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Staten Island Zoo officials went to great lengths to hide the death from the public and keep secret the fact that “Chuck” was actually “Charlotte.”Photo: Staten Island Advance

Staten Island Zoo officials went to great lengths to hide the death from the public and keep secret the fact that “Chuck” was actually “Charlotte,” a female imposter, sources said Wednesday.
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The zoo told a few Staten Island Zoo supporters, but claimed the groundhog died of natural causes.Photo: Staten Island Advance

The stand-in was found dead in her enclosure at the Staten Island Zoo on Feb. 9 — and a necropsy determined she died from “acute internal injuries,” sources said.

She had fallen nearly 6-feet when the mayor lost his grip during the Groundhog Day photo-op. Sources said her injuries were consistent with a fall.

Instead of revealing the sad loss, the zoo — which gets nearly half of its $3.5 million in annual funding from the city — told the staff to keep the mayor’s office in the dark about the animal’s fate.

They told only a few zoo supporters — but claimed that the groundhog had died of natural causes.

“I was told he died of old age, that he went to that big farm in the sky,” said Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-SI), who later learned how the animal had died.

The zoo also never revealed the biggest secret of all — that the part of Chuck was being played by Charlotte. Chuck was benched because the zoo feared he could bite Mayor de Blasio, as he did Mayor Bloomberg in 2009.

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More:
http://nypost.com/2014/09/25/groundhog-d...ernal-injuries/

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The latest news:
Zoo mulls Groundhog Day ban on mayors
By Erin Calabrese and Sophia Rosenbaum

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Mayor Bill de Blasio may not get a chance to kill any more groundhogs.
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Charlotte the groundhog succumbed to her injuries after being dropped by Mayor Bill de Blasio in February.

The Staten Island Zoo is considering ditching its Groundhog Day policy that includes the mayor holding the winter-weather prognosticator following a Post report Thursday that “Chuck” — who was actually Charlotte — died from injuries suffered when she was dropped by Hizzoner.

Charlotte’s death, which exploded on social media and sparked the hashtags #groundhoghazi and #groundhoggate, has zoo officials questioning “whether [the groundhog] should actually be physically transferred from one handler to another or if maybe [the groundhog] should just be displayed emerging or not emerging from his enclosure,” according to spokesman Brian Morris......................

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September 25, 2014 | 3:03p
http://nypost.com/2014/09/25/zoo-may-ban...cks-fatal-fall/

Groundhog reacting to sight of NYC mayor or @ThirstyMan or @Frank Cannon