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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1998)
Ill j|g| ®m The Battalion WORL Inesday • March 11, 1998 ewfoundland’s seal hunters counter inti-sealing lobby with new marketing blitz Celebrities’ health-treatment choices may not be good for all r. JOHN’S, Newfoundland (AP) —Weary ;ingbranded vicious thugs, Canada’s seal ters iare fighting back with a slick mar- I ig campaign touting such products as pepperoni and cure-almost-anything ■oil pills. , is a pew tactic for the sealers, who face a -decibel trans-Atlantic protest campaign ic seal-hunting season moves into full ig over the next few weeks, he an ti-sealing lobby is recruiting celebri- J .to help oppose what it calls “the largest jghtei of marine mammals in the world.” fes are planned in London and Ottawa month to protest the federal govern- w it’s willingness to raise the seal quota to ^ ighest level in years, j’ The seal hunt will be shut down — make mistake about it,” said animal-rights ac- t Paul Watson, the co-founder of Green- |iUN>( t 3e. “If we have to drag the Canadian flag ^pugh the mud to do it, we’ll do so.” ' i Newfoundland, there is equally strong ~ ;rmination to keep the hunt going, y ,'ubic-relations kits being prepared by the >Hng industry contains no images of seals, \Q\. plenty of glossy photos of appetizing ’ ' les prepared with seal meat. samples of seal sausage and seal pepper- are being offered at food fairs across \ada. Newfoundland’s first seal-leather iery recently opened. And Canadian and B m health stores are stocking seal-oil pills |ch allegedly ease arthritis pain, unclog ar- I es and relieve symptoms of diabetes. .leal penises are sold in Asia for use in rodisiacs. We’ve been carrying on the seal hunt in Newfoundland for 200 years,” the provincial fisheries minister, John Efford, said in an in terview. “There’s no group in the world that’s ever again going to stop it.” The hunt almost was stopped in the ^980s. Protests resulted in a European ban on the import of seal pelts, driving large commercial sealing ships out of the business. Newfoundlanders continued small-boat hunting, but the market was so poor by the early 1990s that only about 50,000 seals were taken annually. Starting in 1996, the annual kill rose to more than 200,000. Government officials de cided to back the industry with temporary subsidies in hopes of partly offsetting the loss of 27,000 jobs when Newfoundland’s vital codfish industry collapsed in 1992. This year’s quota is 285,000, and Efford said it could increase if markets for seal products are strong. Efford says animal-rights activists are more concerned about seals than Canadians strug gling to survive in a province with 18 percent unemployment. “Why are these so-called hu manitarians not concerned about 400 com munities in Newfoundland left without work?” he asks. Anti-sealing activists have tried to counter the economic argument by suggesting that sealers shift to eco-tourism, serving as guides for tourists wanting to view the seals close-up on their ice floes. But mostly, the anti-sealing campaign de picts the sealers as vicious. The industry’s most vocal antagonist, the London-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, alleges that many seals are skinned alive and abandoned on the ice after their penises are removed for export to Asia. It con tends that white-coated baby seals continue to be killed, even though the practice was banned a decade ago. Last year, the group sent federal fish eries officials a videotape that it claimed showed sealers committing 140 violations of hunt regulations. The government charged seven sealers with 17 offenses, including failure to kill a seal quickly and using improper instruments. Tina Fagan, a former radio host who heads the Canadian Sealers Association, says the is sue of cruelty is pivotal. Her group has enlist ed a national veterinarian watchdog panel to help ensure that the 6,000 licensed sealers use the most humane methods possible. Efford admits that the hunt is inherent ly bloody. “Who would suggest that killing is pret ty?” he asked. “You can go into any slaugh terhouse in the world — who’d want to take pictures?” One argument the anti-sealing lobby can not use is that the seals are endangered. The last government count, in 1994, estimated there were 4.8 million harp seals in the re gion. Efford says today there are about 6 mil lion, posing a threat to already dwindling fish stocks. The IFAW says there is no proof that seals are responsible for the codfish short age. The group also disputes claims that the seal industry is worth nearly $20 mil lion a year, saying its net value is minimal if costs of enforcement and government subsidies are deducted. CHICAGO (AP) — When Nancy Reagan had a breast re moved rather than going with a less-radical lumpectomy, the percentage of breast cancer pa tients who did the same jumped in ensuing months, re searchers found. The increase shows medical decisions made by the famous can have a pro- bhbhbbbhbbbhbbbbbb* found influ ence on the rest of us, and that is not such a good thing, doctors said. “We do many things we see celebri ties doing, buy cars, doing ex ercises,” said Dr. Moham- mad Akhter, executive director of the Ameri can Public Health Association. “People like to follow celebri ties,” he said. “But what may be good for the celebrity may not be good for individual patients. A mastectomy is a very individ ual decision.” Reagan had surgery on Oct. 17, 1987, an event widely re ported in the media. During the following six months, women diagnosed with breast cancer were 25 percent less likely than in previous ‘... What may be good for the celebrity may not be good for individual patients.” Mohammad Akhter Doctor tfS announces deployment of new Border Patrol agents to Southwest border 'ASHINGTON (AP) —Texas is gain- >25 of the 1,000 new Border Patrol ts being deployed this year as the ^ral immigration service continues ■ ng up its Southwest border enforce- ^t under direction from Congress, be head of the Immigration and Nat- zation Service, joined by Sen. Kay ■| y Hutchison of Texas, made the de- Ihpuent announcement Thesday morn- I^V't a Washington news conference. “Steadily and surely, we are building a Border Patrol force of adequate strength to get the job done,” said Hutchison, who had prodded the Clinton administration to send most of the new reinforcements to Texas. Border-state lawmakers were irked be cause even though Congress mandated the addition of 1,000 new agents this year, the administration initially only sought to add 500. Congress is providing $125 mil lion this year to fund the 1,000 agents. By year’s end, the Border Patrol will boast more than 7,000 agents — double the number just five years ago. Having focused earlier Border Patrol gains on the most popular crossing point for illegal immigrants — California—INS now is turning its sights to Texas, where the Operation Rio Grande crackdown was launched with fanfare last year. Of the 1,000 new Border Patrol agents, 625 are headed for Texas. Next is Arizona, with 190 new agents; California, 140; and New Mexico, 46. Referring to her agency’s $3.8 bil lion budget, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said: “With another record budget, we are further securing the nation’s borders, deterring illegal im migration at ports of entry and inte grating new technologies so that U.S. citizens, immigrants and foreign vis itors are served by a more efficient and modern INS.” The Texas agents will be deployed to the following sectors: 260 to McAllen; 205 to Laredo; 135 to Del Rio; and Marfa, 25. In addition, the Texas sectors are gaining 88 support personnel. With the new reinforcements, Texas will surpass California in number of Border Patrol agents, with 2,957 agents to California’s 2,688. RESUMES: $ 40 S U I T : $ 2 I 0 iia® MORE RESUMES: $40 'a«51 . E • ! wlpplili I lllll HANGING UP YOUR WAITER'S APRON FOR THE LAST TIME: THERE ARE SOME THINGS MONEY CAN'T SHY. FOR EVERYTHING ELSE THERE'S MASTERCARD.* TO LEARN MORE.OR APPLY FOR A CARD, VISIT OUR WE 8 SITE AT WWW.MASTERCARO.COM/COLLEGE ITiTi : < 4- <\> ^ 'Sf- - * months to opt for breast-con serving surgery, researchers re ported in Wednesday’s edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Some 3,400 fewer women un derwent breast-conserving surgery than otherwise would have, said survey leader Dr. Ann Butler Nattinger of the Medical College of Wis consin in Mil waukee. After the six- month spike, the celebrity influence van ished and the rates for mas tectomy and lumpectomy returned to where they had been before. Researchers said there had been nothing published at this time that ques tioned the use of lumpectomy. The effect was most promi nent in central and southern re gions of the country, and in counties with lower levels of ed ucation and income. “As might be expected, the effect of Mrs. Reagan’s surgery was greatest among women who were demographically similar to her, white women aged 50 through 79,” the re searchers said.