LHS is claiming Stacie DaBolt quit but it is known that they fired her.



http://www.hudsonreporter.com/view/fu ... te_lead_story_left_column


Breaking: Another leader leaves shelter that handles Jersey City and Hoboken's animals

Hudson Reporter

10.04.11 - 04:54 pm


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

Copyright 2011 Hudson Reporter. All rights reserved.
? hudsonreporter.com 2011

I?m totally dumbfounded that liberty fired that new shelter manager Stacie. Isn?t this like the 4th manager that they got rid of since Nikki Dawson left and then came back and left again? It doesn?t make any sense to me whatsoever that liberty will go through all of that trouble in making such a big splash about who they have hired or elected to the board just to get rid of them.

This has got to be the biggest train wreck of a thread I have ever encountered on any message board, ever.

Yes, it is all for a good cause and I applaud those who have the welfare of our animals at heart.

To those who want to promote their own political agenda, well, I have no polite words for those who want to use such a topic to advance themselves.

Is Liberty Humane imploding? Board president Al Martino is no more. Treasurer Janice Kruk is no more. Laura Moss member is no more.

Those remaining on the board are not qualified nor experienced enough to lead LHS not to mention making it fiscally whole.

Looks like it is not settled at all.

"Olivieri said yesterday morning that MOST of the charges are not in his jurisdiction, and referred them to Hudson County Superior Court's law division."

Shame that Liberty started all these lawsuits. Very reckless IMHO.

well, now that thats settled all there is to do for the 'plaintiffs" is to apologize.

Jersey City judge denies animal advocates' request for outside overseer at Liberty Humane Society

Wednesday, March 02, 2011
By TERRENCE T. McDONALD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Superior Court judge in Jersey City yesterday denied a request from a group of animal advocates that an outside overseer be appointed to supervise management of Liberty Humane Society.

Judge Thomas Olivieri said the plaintiffs, mostly a group of former animal shelter volunteers, had not provided enough witness testimony to demonstrate the need for a court-appointed receiver to watch over LHS.

The plaintiffs sued last year, charging the defendants - former and current shelter board members and employees - with eight counts, including racketeering and extortion.

Olivieri said yesterday morning that most of the charges are not in his jurisdiction, and referred them to Hudson County Superior Court's law division.

Both sides claimed to be happy with Olivieri's ruling.

Donald Larson, attorney for the plaintiffs, claimed the City Council has asked the city's Health Department to prepare a report on the status of the shelter that will accomplish the same goal as an independent receiver.

But city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said the Health Department has not been asked to issue any such report.

LHS board member Althea Bernheim said she was "very, very happy" with Olivieri's decision to quash the plaintiffs' request for a receiver. The animal shelter is doing fine without one, Bernheim said.

"There's no merit to this case whatsoever," she said.

A second suit, filed by the defendants against the plaintiffs regarding an anti-LHS Facebook page, is being heard by a separate judge.

Quote:

Well in terms of credibility examiner.com is the equivalent of a blog - anyone can write for it. So I would suggest to someone who is on the "other side" of this issue: just sign up to be some other type of generic JC examiner and you can publish your own counter articles.

These "articles" (and I use the word loosely) are ridiculous and obvious.

http://www.examiner.com/religion-soci ... D=examiner_alerts_article



Motion filed against the Liberty Humane Society
January 16th, 2011 1:38 pm ET.Do you like this story?
On Friday, January 14th, a motion for an Order To Show Cause was filed in Jersey City against the Liberty Humane Society (LHS) and former LHS board member, officer, and LHS attorney Diana H. Jeffrey of Bloomfield, NJ.

The order seeks immediate injunctive relief by asking for a court appointed receiver to be placed in control of LHS, located at 235 Jersey City Boulevard in Jersey City, NJ, as well as to:

ensure money is not diverted anywhere other than for day to day operating expenses
freeze of bank accounts and assets unless approved by the court appointed receiver
institute a humane euthanasia policy for animals too ill or injured to be rescued or sent to a rescue or foster
The court order also seeks:

to immediately bar LHS from destroying any additional records
to compel LHS to cease any unlawful acts including but not limited to the abuse of animals, misappropriation of funds, falsification of documents
to bar former LHS board member, former officer, and attorney Diana H. Jeffrey of the law firm of Myerowitz, Jeffrey, Glidden in Bloomfield, NJ to immediately cease the harassment and, or, intimidation of any witness or potential witnesses, or individuals critical of LHS.
This order is being sought after her recent barrage of threats at a recent LHS board meeting. During the board meeting, Jeffrey was recorded telling bystanders that those who have opposed her and have been critical of her ?deserved to be killed!?

Additionally, Jeffrey implicated current Treasurer Janice Kruk of Weehawken, NJ for fraud and falsifying euthanasia numbers in an email that was recently uncovered and made public in a recent chancery action lawsuit filed on behalf of concerned citizens and two animal rights groups. Jeffrey resigned abruptly after this email surfaced. In addition to Jeffrey?s charges against Kruk, reliable sources indicate that she has made charges of alleged animal abuse by former shelter manager Aurora Piacentino of Jersey City, NJ.

Jeffrey is also alleged to have left threatening and intimidating messages and phone calls to witnesses who have been subpoenaed including former Director of Development Janet Russell. An immediate relief decision should be granted as early as this week in Jersey City Court.

In addition to the above action, Jeffrey is scheduled to stand trial on February 7 at 9:00AM in Jersey City Court on criminal charges of making threats and harassment.

To receive a free confidential email notification when my next article is published, your email address will not be shared with anyone, please use the subscribe button above.

Thank you for reading the Newark Religion & Social Issues Examiner.

As a result of examiner's upgrade; numerous errors such as missing photos, missing slide-shows, missing videos, improperly cropped photos, and parts of quotes (instead of the entire quote) being in italics, things being in bold that should not be in bold, things not being in bold when they should be in bold, missing links, and other technical issues are present in numerous articles. My apologies for any inconvenience.

..

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Motion filed against the Liberty Humane Society - Newark Religion & Social Issues | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/religion-soci ... rts_article#ixzz1BEtRsOwz

there are descriptions and language used in that article, specifically about euthanasia procedure, that are a very obvious give away that the author knows little to nothing about what they speak. its unfortunate that its does little more than drag people's names through the mud in a very undeserving/unwarranted/false fashion and straight out spread lies.

i happen to know personally because i LIVED with one of the people mentioned for a year during the time period in question as well as spent several hours a week at the shelter. the idea of this propaganda is flat out pathetic.

and lol @ the mention of "phdog" and whether or not she is "on LHS's side". what other side is there??

If you want to see how horrible our school systems have become, read the article.

It seems that the English Language is DEAD!

Quote:

LHS fired new shelter manager, Dana Bishop, on Monday and the new assistant manager, Bill Romaine, resigned. Both after two months on the job.

________________________________________________

Jersey City, NJ ? Liberty Humane Society (LHS) is pleased to announce the hiring of two key personnel: Dana Bishop to the position of Shelter Manager, and Bill Romaine to the position of Shelter Assistant Manager.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Alfred Martino, acm7673@msn.com
October 2010

LIBERTY HUMANE SOCIETY ANNOUNCES THE HIRING OF KEY SHELTER PERSONNEL

Jersey City, NJ ? Liberty Humane Society (LHS) is pleased to announce the hiring of two key personnel: Dana Bishop to the position of Shelter Manager, and Bill Romaine to the position of Shelter Assistant Manager.

Ms. Bishop comes to LHS from Hunterdon Humane/Hunterdon County SPCA, in Milford, where she worked as an Animal Control Officer and Shelter Assistant Manager for the past two years. Previously to that, she served as Kennel Attendant at Animal Alliance, in Lambertville, where she was responsible for the care of 50+ dogs and the sanitation of the building, as well as prepping dogs for out-of-house adoption appointments.

Ms. Bishop has extensive experience as an Animal Control Officer (ACO) and Animal Cruelty Investigator (ACI), including impounding animals, abuse/neglect assessment, and knowledge of animal care, illnesses and medications, and medicating procedures. She has her ACI Certificate from Mercer County Community College, and her ACO Certificate from Raritan Valley Community College.

For the past four years, Mr. Romaine has worked at the Camden County Animal Shelter (CCAS) where he served as Kennel Attendant, Adoption Counselor, and, most recently, as Kennel Manager. CCAS is one of the highest-volume animal control facilities in the state. He is a certified Animal Control Officer and has extensive experience in canine behavior and customer service relations.

? ? ?

Liberty Humane Society serves as the primary shelter for the cities of Jersey City and Hoboken, providing over 3700 animals-in-need, annually, with a community of compassion and respect, and a chance at a lifelong, loving home.

All inquiries and interview requests can be made to Alfred Martino, President of LHS? s Board of Directors, at acm7673@msn.com.

I'm sorry, but I've got to call out the post on this topic from examiner.com (not a dig on the author that I know nothing about, but what I know about the website itself.)

Everyone should realize that website is a content farm. There is little to no editorial oversight on what is written and the people who write articles for them are compensated by getting a percentage of the advertising revenue generated by ads on the page, meaning that the site is basically trying to be a cheap way to get niche articles high in google search results. I know this because I did a competitive landscape on content farming for work and I was approved as a Jersey City examiner for a topic I was totally unqualified to write.

When you consider that the average return to the writer on these articles is less than $15 (and from what I've seen we're looking closer to less than $7 but that data is hard to pinpoint with these private companies), you will understand how little effort was put into writing them to begin with.

The content farm model is interesting from a business perspective as a solution to the publishing issues we see today, but as a content consumer, reader beware.

Corrected link.
http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2010/ ... -killing-of-shelter-pets/

Crosspost from another Blog called Yesbiscuit provides insigt to those who enable and ignore what is going on in our shelters.

http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2010/ ... ment-page-1/#comment-5547

YesBiscuit!

Are You Enabling the Needless Killing of Shelter Pets?

December 10, 2010

Our battle for a No Kill nation is not against the public. It is against the cowards of our movement who refuse to stand up to their colleagues and friends running shelters that are mired in the failed and defunct philosophies that allow (indeed, cause) killing. Our battle is against those who claim to be part of our movement but fail to recognize the killing of millions of animals every year as an unnecessary and cruel slaughter and to call it what it is. It is against those who will not do for the animals that thing which is their solemn duty to do: to change themselves and to demand that their colleagues change, when that is what the situation calls for. ? Nathan Winograd

Rescuers who pull animals from a shelter in order to save them while remaining silent about the needless killing of healthy/treatable pets there are enabling those who kill shelter pets.

Some may be afraid to speak up because they?ve seen other rescuers get banned from the shelter after doing so. While I can understand the idea that saving a few is better than saving none, I tend to maintain a broader view. I say, speak up for no kill policies and let the shelter director ban every last rescuer from the place. Organize and go to the people above the director, to the media, and to the public. Shine a light on the needless killing going on at the shelter and the director?s efforts to prevent rescuers from saving pets.

Others may enable the killing simply by buying into the old excuses: too many pets and not enough homes; the shelter director is a caring person who would never kill pets if there was any other way; no kill is fine for other fancy-pants places but it could never work here; the irresponsible public churns out poorly cared for pets faster than we can empty the dead pet dumpster; until we get MSN passed, we must keep killing? Rescuers: Wake up and smell the Fatal-Plus! These are myths, long since debunked, perpetuated by killing apologists who are too lazy and/or stubborn to change. Don?t fall into that trap. Change=life. Embrace it.

Rescuers already know that shelter pets are at the mercy of strangers. They rely on you to be their voice. What would they say, if they could? ?Just keep going as you have been, saving a few and letting the rest be killed. Hey, change is hard. We understand.? Or perhaps: ?We all want a chance to live. Not a few of us, all of us. Stop enabling those who kill. Help us.?

Each of us must make a choice. We can not have it both ways by rescuing a few shelters pets while aiding and abetting the needless killing of millions of others. I?m for no kill. I work to enable others who oppose killing. I got here by changing my view of what ?had to be done? with shelter pets. I learned. I grew. I changed. I now believe that what has to be done is to save them ? all of them, except of course those who are medically hopeless and suffering. For them, we can offer the kindness of a gentle end to pain. For the rest, we can offer the kindness of respecting their right to life.

Mark my words, there will be an end to needless killing of healthy/treatable shelter pets. And when that happens, which side will history put you on? Will you have been an advocate for no kill or will you have remained a loyal enabler to those who needlessly killed untold millions of pets in shelters?

Enablers make the continued practice of killing possible. No shelter director can go it alone. He counts on the support of those who are sympathetic to his lies about being ?forced? to kill friendly pets. Strip away that support. It?s time to sink or swim. Learn. Grow. Change. Join us.

I have been to LHS to drop off donations of food etc. What I witnessed was a never ending cycle of cleaning out cages many of which have either very aggressive or very frightened animals. They are constantly walking dogs as well trying their best to give them some kind of quality of life and much needed excercise. Remember, LHS is a dumping ground for dogs and cats. They are often packed to the rafters with unwanted and abandoned animals. Is it ideal? No but the options are limited. I have never witnessed a lack of effort there but it was easy to see that they were often stretched to the limit in space and resources. They do get food donations but sometimes it is old and expired. Same goes for medications. (I always bring new stuff usually bought at Target). Also, problems like ringworm (a highly contagious fungal infection) can happen very quickly. Overall, the situation sucks. People buy dogs for kids etc and then dump them a few short months later. There are also tons of pit and pit mixes either dumped or rescued and brought there. We need to advocate more for capture, spay and neuter programs for cats. Most shelters are bursting at the seams with kitties. I would love to take another dog or cat but we are at capacity in our current home. Maybe for Christmas instead of spending a ton of money on quickly forgotten gifts people could go out and save a dog or cats life. It is so rewarding and easy to do.

Gary Konecky
Newark Religion & Social Issues Examiner.FollowSubscribeSponsor an Examiner .....View all of Gary's articles

5 commentsPrint.More news about the Liberty Humane Society

December 7th, 2010 3:02 pm ET.Do you like this story?
During 2010 there has been a bitter battle for control of the Liberty Humane Society (LHS). Lawsuits and counter lawsuits have been filed by both sides in the dispute. Allegations of criminal conduct have been made by both sides. Now in the latest round of legal skirmishing, there is an unconfirmed report that Diana Jeffrey, a key person for those currently in control of LHS, has been charged with harassing a volunteer at the shelter.

This report comes days after rumors surfaced of a ringworm outbreak at LHS. The purported ringworm outbreak follows not one, but two failed inspections conducted earlier this year by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Current shelter management blamed the failed inspections on prior management despite the fact almost all the violations related to day-to-day operations of the shelter. Violations current management of the shelter was cited for include:

? Incorrect sanitation procedures

? Lack of a supervising veterinarian

? Animals with communicable diseases not being separated from healthy animals

? Improper record keeping

? The facility not being in good repair

? Improper use of cages so as not to prevent injury to the dogs in the cages

? Improper storage of pet food that could result in contamination of the pet food

? Expired pet food

? Failure to control insects

? Failure to properly disinfect animal food receptacles

? Improperly stored medications including dewormers

? Expired medications

? Lack of proper cleaning of animal enclosures

? and a host of other violations.

Many of the same violations were cited in both failed inspections, inspections that were nearly two months apart. When I visited the shelter in person, many of the violations cited in the inspection reports were clearly present. A look at these violations clearly shows the animals at this facility are or have been needlessly exposed to injury, diseases, and life threatening conditions.

This is not some private animal shelter. This is not some crazy person with too many cats. This facility is the municipal pound for Jersey City and Hoboken. This shelter is taxpayer funded. Why are tax dollars being spent for this chamber of horrors? Why is it that despite documented deficiencies at this shelter, neither city has stepped in to oversee its operations?

Why is it that current shelter management seems preoccupied with filing SLAPP lawsuits and shutting down Facebook groups that seek to expose conditions at this shelter? Perhaps instead of worrying about their critics, current shelter management should spend some time looking after the animals in their care.

Over the years, including just last week, I have visited numerous animal shelters, including ones in:

?Wantagh, NY
?Middletown, NY (two shelters, one being the local pound)
?Port Jervis, NY (a local pound)
?Teterboro, NJ (the Bergen County Animal Shelter)
?Oakland, NJ
?Montclair, NJ (a privately run shelter serving as the local pound)
?Madison, NJ
?North Branch, NJ (a privately run shelter serving as the local pound)
?and others.
With the exception of the now closed shelter in Montclair, I have never seen any shelter with conditions as appalling as the conditions at LHS.

http://www.examiner.com/religion-soci ... he-liberty-humane-society

We just adopted a dog two weeks ago from the shelter. We went up there several times to visit until our dog was spayed.

From what I saw, they have a pretty good set of volunteers who really are doing the best they can with the resources that they have. They clearly have some communication/process issues that one expects of a non-profit (e.g. my dog was already micro-chipped and they accidentally gave her a second one, they spayed her 4 days earlier than they had told me and I went to visit but she was gone getting spayed, but when I called back they said no she wasn't spayed, even though she actually had gotten spayed, which overall delayed the amount of time that she was in there by a few days.)

Bottom line while there are some albeit annoying process issues, from my observations they are hitting the important things (the dogs seem to be getting plenty of exercise and know that they are loved by the volunteers.)

To answer the other part of your question, I know the dog we got never was posted online. You may want to just go and look on weekends, I'm guessing that is when owner surrenders usually come in. We've been on and off doing that for several months.

Does anyone know what has been going on at the shelter? I often check out the dogs they have up for adoption on their site as we hope to adopt sometime next year. It seems the number of Dogs has been greatly reduced. Anyone know anything?

I hope my last two posts encourage people to either add more cats and dogs (or rabbits, for that matter) to the adoption board or to foster a pet.

If one is not able to make even the short term commitment of fostering, there is a deep need for volunteers to transport /handle adoptable pets to off-site adoption events, serve as adoption counselors both off-site and in the shelter or make follow-up calls to adopters.

At the very least, don't depend on secondhand information. particularly when some sources can't make up their mind if they love or hate the shelter.

Liberty also relies on foster homes. I have volunteered at Liberty seven years. I am fostering cats for LHS right now and have met other cat and dog foster parents. Could LHS have more animals in foster care? Heck, yes.

The problem is that, as in the case of many other nonprofts, LHS may have a lot of volunteers n their roster - but only a small percentage actually do anything, much the way LHS Uncensored mourns euthanized animals but doesn't do anything to help adoptable dogs.

One local rescue group, led by a woman who alternately champions and bashes LHS on JCList (under two different names, no less) has even signed over her cats to Liberty when she has had them too long. (Usually, it is the other way around.)

I am sure LHS, thanks to Niki Dawson's relationship with the NYC Mayor's Alliance, will be the only NJ group at "Meet the Breeds" in NYC in mid-October. I wonder how many people will volunteer to transport and adopt out adoptable animals? It isn't as much fun as lighting up candles in front of news cameras. However, it certainly is more productive.

"Word has it that...." It seems to me an awful lot of people rely on second hand information.

Adoption goals have been set and are on display in the lobby. The names of all the cats and dogs adopted out are also prominently displayed. (Rescue and fosters are displayed separately.)

I was at LHS and the state inspectors were back there again doing their inspection. I hope that LHS passes this time around.

Eight Jersey City Liberty Humane dogs, some lised for euthanasia, found homes through Morris County rescue group

Updated: Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 8:15 PM
Melissa Hayes/The Jersey Journal

A Morris County animal rescue that took 11 dogs from Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City earlier this month has found homes for eight of the animals, officials with the Morris County shelter said today.

Several of the dogs were the list at Liberty Humane to be euthanized, which prompted 11th Hour Rescue to take the dogs on Sept. 5.

Eleventh Hour volunteer Eda Breslin said the rescue has found homes for Diamond, Kim, Milkbone, Chase, Christie, Egypt, Mouse and Jessie. The rescue also took in Gordo, Krugman and Smooches.

Milkbone, Chase and Krugman were favorites of volunteers at Liberty Humane who fought to save the dogs after Liberty Humane said they failed evaluations.

The Jersey City shelter has put down more than 25 dogs who were ill or deemed too dangerous to adopt.

The shelter was sanctioned by the state for keeping dogs in cages that were too small and reached out to more than 31 rescue groups and shelters who took dogs to ease the overcrowding.

"We are grateful to 11th Hour for making room for so many LHS dogs during the space crisis, and are thrilled they have been able to place them so quickly," said Niki Dawson, interim director of Liberty Humane. "We hope this allows 11th Hour to take more dogs from Liberty in the very near future."

Breslin said the rescue plans to visit Liberty Humane next week to take in more dogs.

Chase, who was evaluated as being dog aggressive, was adopted by a couple with a Beagle-Chihuahua mix, and has had no problems, Breslin said.

Breslin said some dogs are special cases, like Gordo who can't be with other dogs and Krugman, an old dog whose muscles began to atrophy from being in a small cage.

Anyone interested in adopting dogs from 11th Hour Rescue should visit ehrdogs.org for information.

What the country needs is a huge national campaign entitled YOU DO NOT NEED A PET!

Those 21 million people strolling around looking for 30 million more animals to add to the stockpile are a menace who need to be trained in sensible thinking.

But since we live in a money society, those breeding more and more and more of these animals and selling at huge markups make the call and subject the population to the "fuzziness" claptrap of pet ownership. Every little kiddie is brainwashed into thinking his life is incomplete without a dog.


We have the excess animals we have and they should all be adopted out and there should be NO OTHER source of pets besides these adoptions. The situation will solve itself and people will be lined up at the adoption centers at least until the ad campaign knocks some sense into their heads. Every animal who still has a head and 4 limbs will have a quick adoption.

"No Kill" makes no sense unless it is intimately tied to "No Breed, No Sell!"
Exception can be made for "working dogs."

I think what Nathan is saying is that adoptions should be number one priority to increase save rates. If Nevada can get 1000 animals adopted in a month why can't Liberty who is located in the shadow of the largest city in the US.

The problem is that,as other shelters do, Liberty does not try hard enough and relies on killing the overflow of animals. And he is right.

Word is that Niki Dawson does not know anything about getting animals adopted. All she does is call upon other shelters and rescues to take animals. That and adoptions and foster homes will increase save rates.

Liberty needs to set a GOAL for adoptions each month! Business 101. It has to triple its efforts.

Nathan is not completely informed.

Liberty Humane Society has weekly off-site adoption events at PetSmart in Secaucus. Cats are there weekly. Dog attendence has been spotty because it has been difficult to find volunteers consistently willing to bring dogs to PetSmart. However, it looks like a dog crew has been formed.

In addition, LHS is the only group outside of NYC represented at the CFA Cat Show yearly, precisely because of Niki Dawson's relationship with the Mayor's Alliance there. As a volunteer, I have seen a great many cats adopted there.

Considering the fact that New York City has the 4 shelters: CACC, the ASPCA, Bide-A-Wee and the North Shore Animal Leauge - to say nothing of dozens of rescue groups: Mighty Mutts, Kitty Kind, City Critters, etc., etc. ; Liberty does get a fair number of adoptors from NYC. Liberty has adopted animals out to homes as far away as Massachusetts. I am handling an inquiry from a woman in Philidelphia!

Quote:

What happen? Why HAA no longer exists?