SAN DIEGO -- The seals at the Children's Pool in La Jolla got a temporary reprieve Thursday, as a judge delayed his order to remove the animals, ruling that a new law shifting control of the beach back to the city of San Diego warrants a full hearing.

Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofmann ordered the delay three days after he gave the city 72 hours to begin relocating the seals.

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith told the judge Thursday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature on Senate Bill 428, which shifts control of the beach back to San Diego, creates a changed circumstance that Hofmann could not consider when he issued Monday's ruling.

Hofmann Thursday did not vacate the ruling but instead scheduled an Oct. 6 hearing on the matter.

"We're very happy he did the right thing," Goldsmith said of the judge outside court. "And hopefully, the whole purpose of this is to end this expensive litigation that has been going on for too many years. Stop the bleeding of the costs. Stop the bleeding of the expenses and the attorneys' fees, and get this back into the hands of the policy makers.

"Sometimes you consider the cost to the taxpayers and that is justice."

Hofmann said Monday that the time had come for the city to comply with a 2005 order from now-retired Judge William Pate to remove the seals.

But Paul Kennerson, who represents a swimmer who filed a 2004 lawsuit to get the city to take action, said the city failed in its responsibility to maintain Children's Pool as a bathing area from 1930 until the mid-1990s.

"If the city had done its job, none of this would be upon us," Kennerson told the judge.

When the law takes effect in January, the city will have the discretion to change the area into a marine mammal park but also the obligation to keep it as a children's pool, the attorney said.

"Something has to give, your honor," Kennerson told the judge. "This legislation cannot stand. The law is no good."

Kennerson said the city can't prevail in the matter just because it says it doesn't have the money to pay to remove the seals.

"This is a nation of laws, not of men or money," Kennerson said.

A 1931 trust agreement transferred control of Children's Pool from the state to the city.

Ginny Uybungco, of the educational group La Jolla Friends of the Seals, said Hofmann's ruling is the first step toward making Children's Pool a marine mammal park.

"In our view, the seals will be there," Uybungco said outside court. "And that means tourists and the visitors from across the country, and many countries, who come to the city to see the seals will be able to see the seals. And the seals, who are trying to survive, will be able to stay there another day."

On Monday, Assistant City Attorney for Civil Litigation Andrew Jones told Hofmann that the city would rely on an acoustical system using the sounds of barking dogs to shoo the seals away from the beach.

Jones said the dog-barking plan to rid the beach of the seals -- at a estimated cost of $688,000 -- would require a person walking up and down the beach to make sure the animals are gone and possibly a police presence to keep the peace.