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.