JERSEY CITY, HOBOKEN AND BEYOND — Stacie DaBolt, the shelter manager at the sometimes controversial Liberty Humane Society animal shelter (LHS) in Jersey City — which has a contract to deal with stray and found animals in Jersey City and Hoboken — resigned on Sept. 28 after seven months on the job, an official there confirmed on Tuesday.
The resignation comes close to a year after the shelter became embroiled in lawsuits with past volunteers over disagreements regarding the euthanasia policy.
“We wish her well in her future endeavors,”said John Hanussack, LHS board president, who declined to elaborate on why DaBolt left. He said her departure came as a surprise but that it was her choice. The board is soliciting the advice of former board members and is looking to bring on a new shelter manager.
“We will be fine,” he said. “It is obviously going to be a challenge with everything that went on last summer.”
During the interim, staff will step in to fill manager responsibiltities such as the director of development, Irene Borngraeber.
DaBolt joined the shelter seven months ago and was previously field operations manager for the Arizona Humane Society, overseeing animal cruelty investigations. She ran an emergency triage program, the only one of its kind. She also appeared in a documentary for Animal Cops Phoenix on the Animal Planet channel.
In an article that appeared recently in the Reporter newspapers, DaBolt talked about the challenges that the shelter was facing, and how they would overcome them. Last year, the shelter struggled after poor results in a state inspection. Former volunteers had complained vocally about the numbers of animals euthanized at the shelter, and how the decisions were made.
For our recent story on the shelter’s controversies and progress, click HERE. — Adriana Rambay Fernandez