I was surprised to hear plans by the Brighton Sea Life Centre to exhibit otters and seals have been approved by Brighton and Hove City Council's planning applications sub-committee.

How can anyone believe it acceptable to hold wild animals in artificial conditions so much smaller than their natural habitats?

Three minutes of potential curiosity for a young child set against a lifetime of captive boredom and distress for a wild animal is not an acceptable trade-off.

My thanks goes to those councillors who, although bizarrely instructed by the chairman not to consider the animal welfare implications of the proposal, felt they could not morally support the Sea Life plans.

The council is trusted by many to be more environmentally and animal friendly than most, having adopted its own Animal Welfare Charter. The planning applications sub-committee's decision, in my view, demonstrates such public trust is misplaced. The Born Free Foundation and others now hold the Brighton & Hove City Council ultimately responsible for the well-being - indeed the lives - of the seals and otters once these animals are on display at the Brighton Sea Life Centre.

-Virginia McKenna OBE Born Free Foundation, Horsham, www.bornfree.org.uk