Attend a critical City Council hearing
May 15, 2010 – 2:28 pmWe need you to attend a critical City Council hearing in La Jolla at 6pm on Monday, May 17, Sherwood Auditorium!
Monday, May 17 at 6 pm
Sherwood Auditorium at MCASD (Museum of Contemporary Art) -La Jolla,
700 Prospect St.
The guideline rope that keeps people a safe distance from seals in La Jolla was taken down one day too early on May 15 even though there are still nursing seal pups on the beach. The mayor has said he will NOT honor a request by half of the city councilmembers to keep the rope up pending the hearing on Monday.
We really need you to email or call YOUR councilmember. Be sure to give your address as a constituent. If you have time, you can contact all eight councilmembers and the mayor, and if at all possible attend the hearing on Monday in La Jolla (6pm Sherwood Auditorium, 700 Prospect St.).
The ONLY way we can get the rope put back up, and what we ALL need to request when writing and speaking, is for the Council to seek an emergency coastal development permit to keep the rope up after May 15.
Councilmember Lightner is back to trying to sabotage this plan even though she initially voted for it at the committee level. The plan approved by the Natural Resources & Culture Committee also calls for closing the beach during pupping season, prohibiting dogs on the beach at all times, and seeking private funding for a park ranger.
Lightner now claims she has secured anonymous funding for a ranger and wants that to be the ONLY part of the plan the Council approves. The rest of the Council needs to hear from YOU as to why the rest of the plan is crucial. To see photo and video evidence for why it is, just visit our older blogs at www.savesandiegoseals.com.
Don’t let Sherri Lightner sabotage commonsense measures that the larger community strongly supports! Please write to YOUR councilmember THIS WEEKEND, and if you have time, the other councilmembers and mayor, to demand that the Council seek an emergency coastal development permit to keep the rope up after May 15, and implement ALL points in the plan approved by the NRC Committee.
Please do whatever you can to attend the hearing, even if you have to arrive late. You will be given an opportunity to speak for two minutes, or you can waive your time to the APRL/LJFS presentation.
HSUS Facebook alert about the meeting
Thank you!
The pupping season rope guideline was removed early Saturday morning just after 6 am, a day earlier than scheduled. The situation at the beach is pretty chaotic with weekend crowd surrounding the seals etc. Here’s the video from Saturday, May 15, showing you what happens when the rope is removed
More scenes from the beach…
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON FOR THIS TO BE HAPPENING. Sherri Lighter has secured $80,000 for the beach security (bullies that will make sure people are allowed to disturb the seals and fight free speech as we see it), but she has no money to fix the bathrooms/Children’s Pool area which is in a devastating condition. A simple, inexpensive solution, a rope, can prevent this chaos. Instead, the SDPD (2 cars) is patrolling the area on a clock; again, at a huge expense to the San Diego taxpayers.
One of the police officers, Robert Atwood, threatened me with a citation for calling on the crowds to move away from the seals. The police keeps telling our volunteers that they are not allowed to ask people not to go on the beach (targeting free speech) and that the police can’t enforce seal harassment, that it is only federal law and cannot be enforced just like you don’t enforce immigration law. It is simply incorrect as the city’s own municipal code prohibits harassment of wildlife, Chapter 1, Section 63.0102(b)(10).
Please listen to this policeman telling me that touching the seal is not against the law:
What has gone on this weekend is an absolute embarrassment to the city and law enforcement.
Reaction from the media:
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26 Comments! WOW! Read Below what others are saying.
This is very disturbing. The mayor of La Jolla should be ashamed of himself. My family travels from NJ to Ca every year and we spend time in La Jolla, one of our favorite stops is the children’s pool where we enjoy quietly observing the seals from the pier. If something does not change we will not be supporting any business’s in La Jolla. We will however, continue making our trip to Ca and we will continue visiting the children’s pool but instead we will stay outside of La Jolla and only support those who care about the safety and well being of these beautiful animals. I wish I was out there and could come to the town hall meeting. Good luck to all the kind caring people out there trying to stop these acts of cruelty.
By Angela Christman on May 16, 2010
That video is so disgusting. The SDPD should be fined for not enforcing Federal Law. Clearly, touching seals is NOT ok, qualifies as harassment (as I’m sure the seals don’t ask to be “petted”) and a potential health hazard to children touching them.
I wish I was in town so I could attend the meeting tomorrow. I hope Sheri Lightner gets a boot thrown at her.
By Andrew Bergeron on May 16, 2010
Every so often I read the FAQ and history sections of this website. It’s good for a laugh. The history is not correct and the FAQ reads like a bad politicians campaign pamphlet. Spreading lies and false info to push your agenda…
By Return the beach to humans on May 17, 2010
I agree with Angela (see note above). It is shocking every time I visit La Jolla to see the (mostly middle-aged white men) acting like fools on the beach. I wish I could be at the meeting also, but will make a donation to support the Seal Watch. As a parent and scientist who visits the Seal Beach with kids in tow, I don’t understand why others feel the need to put other creatures in harm’s way, to indulge their access to (yet more) sandy beach. There are more important things to do and learn in the world; sadly, many probably won’t realize that in their lifetime.
By Jane Seymour on May 17, 2010
So Andrew, if the SDPD started enforcing all federal laws would you be cool with that? Arizona just said they wanted to and I’ll bet you don’t like that law? Maybe you do.
Touching a seal… It could be seen as harassment. Or, was the seal really bothered by it? Did it run into traffic and get killed? Did it swim away and start a life of crime? Did it just go into the ocean and come back later? It’s like pigeons in the park. I’ll bet you don’t think twice when they all fly away when you walk near them. Or the squirrels, they always run when someone gets near. Hell, people feed them all the time. I agree that some people take it too far sometimes, but these seals are use to humans and seem to like it, otherwise they would have moved. Even squirrels move if annoyed. The people that take it too far in my book are the ones who get all upset if the seals “Flush” because someone got to near. I could understand if they ran down the beach and smacked each one on the butt, but not if they just walk down there. Guy loosing his glasses is a great example, he meant no harm, just getting his glasses back.
I’ve come up with a great solution. It seems to me that you feel seals like warm dry places with water nearby and don’t like people. So, I say we load them all up and take them to the Salton Sea.
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