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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 1986)
Page 14/The Battalion/Wednesday, December 17, 1986 Moose, cow baffle experts with interspecies romance SHREWSBURY, Vt. (AP) —They said it wouldn’t last, but now that Jessica the cow and her lovesick moose have been nuzzling happily for nearly two months, the experts are struggling to come up with an explanation for the odd couple. Maybe the young moose was re jected by a female of his own kind, suggested one animal behaviorist. Maybe he grew up in a barnyard and is more comfortable around cows than other moose, theorized another. Whatever the explanation, it’s clear that the relationship between Jessica and her moose transcends its lusty beginnings during the cow’s mating period, said Charles Willey, the Vermont’s moose expert who spent a few hours at Larry Carrara’s hilltop farm recently observing the two. “He just has these mixed-up feel ings, something between passion and companionship,” said Willey. “There really is a bond between the two.” Willey said Jessica, a Hereford cow, shows signs of closeness to the moose, too. “When I was there she was mooing to him,” he said. “When they were separated from each other, he would walk to her and brush up against her. She seemed very taken by the attention.” Willey and other scientists who have studied moose behavior exten sively say they believe the moose ini tially was attracted to Jessica because she was in heat. Although it is biologically impossi ble for a moose and a cow to pro duce offspring, experts say the scent of a cow in heat may be similar to that given off by a female moose. Toys Iran (Continued from page 1) that oversight, when used prop erly, is a pretty good tool.” Senate leaders announced the makeup of a special, Watergate- style committee, headed by Dan iel Inouye, D-Hawaii, to conduct an investigation of the entire Iran-Contra affair when the 100th Congress convenes in Jan uary. Regan said that during his ap pearance before the committee, “I didn’t duck any question. I didn’t take any Fifth Amend ment. I didn’t invoke executive privilege.” Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D- Ariz., said that Regan “told an unbelievable story in a very be lievable manner. . . . It’s the story you’ve read about, and he says he knew nothing about it. I find that unbelievable.” Any congressional grant of “use immunity” proposed by Rea gan would not only compel testi mony by Poindexter and North, and possibly others, but would shield them from prosecution based on information they give Senate investigators. However, prosecutors would be free to build a criminal case from infor mation gathered independently or from other witnesses’ testi mony. (Continued from page 1) Swartz identifies Levin’s remarks as just another industry excuse. “Part of this ‘shift the blame’ strat egy lies in the industry’s use of the words ‘parental supervision’ as a substitute for ‘don’t blame us’ when tragedy strikes,” he says. “The in dustry knows the vast majority of toys sold will be used without adult supervision, as surrogate baby-sit ters.” Toy manufacturers also hide be hind age recommendations when ever an injury occurs, Swartz says. “Age recommendations, when given, are frequently inconsistent, misleading, inaccurate and inappro priate,” he says. “They rarely ex plain the risks posed by any partic ular toy and it is common for truly hazardous toys to never carry age recommendations.” In response to this charge, Levin says she wonders what made a trial attorney the person to be deciding these things. “We (the TMA) didn’t compile a 10 worst attorneys list,” Levin says. Swartz says most warnings, if they exist, are printed on packaging which is tossed away and forgotten moments after opening a toy. Swartz says he has never found a toy which adequately describes and indicates its potential for killing, even in cases in which the toy has caused several deaths. Governmental action against toy manufacturers has been overwhelm ingly lacking, he says. “The United States lags behind other countries around the world in establishing stringent, effective safety standards for toys,” he says. “The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) knows we could learn a great deal from our nearest neighbor, Canada, on how to de velop effective toy safety standards, yet they defend inadequate stan dards which permit the continued marketing of toys and other prod ucts that kill our children. “Each year they (the CPSC) spon sor an annual ‘toy safety campaign’ with the toy industry’s trade associa tion. They use our tax dollars to help toy makers get their spurious points across to consumers and to provide free public relations. “This is the industry the CPSC is supposed to be regulating. It is a case of the fox guarding the hen house.” Swartz also accused the CPSC of not testing toys before they reach store shelves. “If any such testing is done, it is usually paid for by the manufactur ers and we are never told about the failures. 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