Groundhog dropped by nyc mayor bill de blasio reportedly died of 'internal injuries'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped a groundhog at the Staten Island Zoo — and the injuries it may have sustained from the fall could have led to its death. De Blasio dropped the

groundhog on Feb. 2 while celebrating Groundhog Day. But when the groundhog died days later of "internal injuries," the zoo began an elaborate cover-up, according to _The New York

Post_. The _Post_ reports that officials at the Staten Island Zoo "went to great lengths to hide the death from the public." And that wasn't the only secret the zoo was

keeping — according to the _Post_, the male groundhog, Chuck, was actually a female groundhog, Charlotte. The zoo was afraid Chuck would bite de Blasio, since he bit Mayor Michael Bloomberg

in 2009, so they employed the use of Charlotte for the celebration instead. SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple

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to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Charlotte was found dead in her habitat at the zoo

on Feb. 9, and her autopsy revealed she died of "acute internal injuries." She fell nearly six feet when de Blasio dropped her, and her injuries were apparently "consistent

with a fall." The Staten Island Zoo told a handful of zoo supporters that the groundhog had died, but claimed it was from "natural causes." The _Post_ reports that zoo staff

were instructed to "keep the mayor's office in the dark about the animal's fate," since the zoo gets almost half its annual funding from the city. "I was told he

died of old age, that he went to that big farm in the sky," Assemblyman Matthew Titone, a Democrat from Staten Island, told the _Post_, after learning of the groundhog's injuries.

--_Meghan DeMaria_ Explore More Speed Reads