DEATH TO SEAL "PUPS" IN LA JOLLA

La Jolla -- A San Diego lawyer - Paul Kennerson - aka the anti-seal lawyer - has made over one million dollars in fees trying to kill the seals' baby pups at Casa Beach in La Jolla.
Tomorrow, Sept. 30th, he will be making more money as he tries to obtain a court order from Superior Court judge Yuri Hoffman (Dept. 60) during an emergency hearing to force the immediate dispersal of seals at the so-called Children's Pool in La Jolla.
Thousands of parents bring their little children to that pool for the only opportunity locally to see seals, and their baby pups, up close.
But, Kennerson and his client, Valerie Sullivan, who is a Vezsula citizen and has lived in New Zealand for the past two years, want a court order to force the city to remove the seals - immediately!
That means the certain death of the seals' pups. Their pupping season begins in December.
Judge Hoffman ordered on September 19th the city to initiate the "dredging portion" of a court order requiring the city to restore Casa Beach to its 1931 configuration as a "bathing pool."
However, the city must obtain state and federal permits to dredge.
The order said nothing about dispersing seals prior to dredging, according to attorney Bryan Pease, counsel for the Animal Protection and Rescue League of Hillcrest.
So far, the court has ordered the city to pay lawyer Kennerson over $1 million in attorney fees, and millions more to dredge the beach, all in the name of his absentee, foreign client.
"It is a total violation of separation of powers for a court to take on the role of a legislative body in mandating that millions of dollars of taxpayer money be used to remove a beach simply because an arcane state law says the beach used to be an artificial bathing pool," says attorney Pease.
"The state legislature could save the city millions of dollars by simply mending the 1931 law to eliminate the phony requirement the state court has read into it requiring the city to excavate the beach in 2008, a requirement that is actually illegal if ordered done without necessary permits," Pease added.
Kennerson did not return a phone call requesting comment.
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Copyright, 2008, by journalist Leo E. Laurence, leopowerhere@msn.com (619) 757-4909