Bringing respectability
La Jollans for Clean Government, La Jolla’s community watchdog organization (LaJollaWatchdog.org), applauds the recent election of six new trustees for the board of the La Jolla Community Planning Association (CPA), the official planning board for La Jolla. La Jollans for Clean Government has been pursuing reform of the CPA for several years now. The CPA’s history of secret meetings, backroom deals, violations of the Brown Act and other corrupt practices led to a lawsuit being filed last year, but with the recent approval of new by-laws and the election of the six new trustees, past problems appear to be heading towards an appropriate resolution. These new trustees have promised to ensure an open and transparent public process at the CPA, and understand their responsibility in preserving and enhancing La Jolla’s small town atmosphere.
For many years, the CPA was simply a rubberstamp for local land developers whose only concern was making money at the expense of our quality of life. We believe that these new trustees will bring respectability to the proceedings of the CPA, and we hope they will also continue their efforts to convince City officials to accept the new CPA by-laws, which were overwhelmingly endorsed by the General Membership in February.
Steven W. Haskins, Attorney for La Jollans for Clean Government, Inc., La Jolla

No selective enforcement
The Natural Resources and Culture Committee of the San Diego City Council voted on Feb. 21, 2007 to send to the full council a resolution to create a law for special protection of harbor seals at the Children’s Pool.
Any law that protects harbor seals at the Children’s Pool must also apply to South Casa Beach, Shell Beach and the La Jolla Cove. Besides the Children’s Pool, harbor seals use the rock reef off of South Casa Beach west of the seawall. Harbor seals also use the rock reef area just off Shell Beach. The rock areas of the La Jolla Cove are also used by harbor seals as well as the beach at the La Jolla Cove with more frequency.
In the future, the National Marine Fisheries Service may request pupping-season rope barrier protection for harbor seals at the La Jolla Cove, Shell Beach and South Casa Beach.
Any law that does apply to harbor seals must also apply to other pinnipeds as well, such as California sea lions and northern elephant seals. Since pinnipeds may use all the beach and bay areas in San Diego, any law of special protection must apply to all of these areas within the city limits of San Diego.
Kent Trego, La Jolla

Not big aquatic pets
I applaud CAL-OSHA for its report concerning trainer safety at SeaWorld. It is regrettable that the agency retracted the report, whether due to a perceived lack of expertise in marine mammal science or to pressure from Anheuser Busch corporate interests.
The conclusion that the death of a SeaWorld trainer is only a matter of time is obvious to even the most casual observer, let alone a trained safety inspector. When you put an enormous, wild killer whale, the top predator of the sea, into a small enclosure with another mammal a fraction of its size, you have a formula for disaster. Add to that the daily coercion to perform circus tricks, the thoroughly unmet physical and social needs of the whales, plus the bizarre and unnatural theme park environment complete with thunderous music, nightly explosions and hordes of screaming people, and you could hardly create a more perfect setting for trouble if you tried.
A quick Internet search reveals many theme-park incidents and injuries involving marine mammals in past years, and who knows how many more have gone unwitnessed by the public during training sessions, and/or unreported. The fact that these wild animals can be trained to perform does not change the fact that they are wild. Whether stolen from the sea or born in captivity, they are not big aquatic pets just because someone can pat them on the head, kiss their faces or ride on their backs. They are not “gentle animals” as the SeaWorld spokesman insisted in Friday’s television clips, and they are not domesticated. Any captive wild animal may rebel; many have, and many more no doubt will in the future.
Marine mammal scientists state that stress appears to be the underlying cause for most of the orca deaths in captivity, where the animals live nowhere near the 60-80 years of age enjoyed by their species in the ocean. Who would doubt that a far-ranging creature with strong social bonds to a large pod in the wild might well be stressed by a life of captivity and forced performing? It has often been said that keeping an orca in a tank is like keeping an eagle in a parakeet cage.
You don’t need to be a CAL-OSHA investigator to predict the eventual outcome of the encounters between trainers and orcas. The appropriate relationship between people and wild animals is one of distance, and anytime you close that gap you are asking for trouble ” whether it be in a zoo, a circus, a nightclub act or a marine park. The performing animals in many cases are worth more to the industries involved than are the employees. Just as airlines compute the cost differential between installing new safety materials in aircraft versus the payout on lawsuits after a crash, so do animal entertainment businesses recognize that their “performers” are too lucrative to restrict for safety reasons. This is not to say that they don’t make an effort to create a safe situation for employees, it is to say that the proximity of wild animals and human beings makes safety an illusion. Sooner or later nature prevails over good fortune.
CAL-OSHA may have made some errors in their SeaWorld report, but predicting the eventual death of a trainer was not one of them.
Jane Cartmill, Vice President, San Diego Animal Advocates