David Perle 202-483-7382
Cumberland, Md. – With the notorious Tri-State Zoological Park slated to provide a groundhog for the Groundhog Day event downtown, PETA sent a letter today to Melinda Kelleher, the executive director of the Cumberland Downtown Development Commission, urging her to skip the live groundhog altogether. PETA notes that groundhogs are prey animals who actively avoid human contact and transporting them to unfamiliar locations while they should be hibernating and subjecting them to being around unfamiliar humans is extremely stressful for them. The novel coronavirus is also transmissible between humans and other species, so the event would put Murray the groundhog at risk of COVID-19 infection.
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Fireworks are launched from the Baltimore Street bridge in this Jan. 1, 2018, file photo. The city won t hold it s annual New Year s Eve celebration this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Steve Bittner
CUMBERLAND â The city of Cumberland will not hold its traditional New Yearâs Eve celebration, another casualty of mounting COVID-19 cases in the region, Downtown Development Commission Executive Director Melinda Kelleher said Thursday.
The city traditionally rings in the new year with a ball drop and fireworks at midnight.
âAfter much discussionâ with Mayor Raymond Morriss and the members of City Council, Kelleher said, it became apparent that thereâs simply no good way to accommodate the crowd that the celebration tends to draw safely.