Endangered zoo: OSHA regulators wield too heavy a hand

Regulatory agencies have a bad reputation across the board for consistently demonstrating a lack of perspective and common sense. The latest example of heavy-handed, bureaucratic overreach: the possible closure of the Southern Nevada Zoological-Botanical Park — the Rancho Drive attraction better known as the Las Vegas zoo — for having old wall plugs.

On Tuesday, Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith detailed how the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration isn’t budging from its insistence that the tiny, nonprofit zoo pay at least $13,200 in fines, most of them for having decades-old electrical wiring and outlets. A fine that large "will wipe out our finances," director Pat Dingle told Mr. Smith.

It’s not enough for OSHA to order the zoo to bring its old buildings up to higher power standards — costs the facility might be able to manage. OSHA insists on collecting a fine that could force the volunteer-supported zoo to shut down.

The plugs have "never been an issue with the city of Las Vegas or the Las Vegas Fire Department," Mr. Dingle said. "Everything we have goes into the care and feeding of the animals. … Do we feed the animals or pay the state of Nevada? We’re going to feed the animals. … It’s just insanity."

Last July, OSHA imposed a new rule dictating that its more than three dozen inspectors must find serious violations in at least half their inspections. The zoo is a victim of a brutal numbers game, of a quota system that makes the survival of the government work force a greater priority than the survival of the businesses that pay the government’s bills.

It brings to mind the fable about the scorpion and the frog. When a scorpion asks a frog to carry him across a river, the frog expresses fear that the scorpion might sting him. The scorpion points out that both would die if he stung the frog. The frog then agrees to provide passage, but after setting off across the river with the scorpion on his back, the scorpion stings him anyway. The doomed frog asks the drowning scorpion why he stung him. The scorpion answers, "It’s my nature." The lesson: Some instincts are irrepressible, no matter the consequences.

OSHA’s penalty against the zoo is the equivalent of issuing a death sentence to a driver for traveling 6 mph over a posted speed limit. This agency and other regulators need to remember that their actions do not take place in a vacuum. They have the power to destroy lives. If government is going to close a business that has managed to survive this four-year economic meltdown, there had better be an immediate threat to public health or indisputable proof of criminal activity. The zoo’s violations don’t remotely approach that standard.

.....We hope you appreciate our content. Subscribe Today to continue reading this story, and all of our stories.
Limited Time Offer!
Our best offer of the year. Unlock unlimited digital access today with this special offer!!
99¢ for six months
Exit mobile version