Dozens remain at Calif. rescue where 138 dogs found dead, 700 missing

With dozens of animals still living at Miranda’s Rescue months after federal and local law enforcement uncovered a mass grave during a sprawling criminal investigation, the woman who helped expose the Fortuna operation is asking California’s attorney general to step in. 

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Jennifer Raymond filed a complaint Tuesday with California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office asking the state to pursue the “involuntary dissolution” of Miranda’s Rescue, remove owner Shannon Miranda from control of the nonprofit and appoint a receiver to take custody of the animals still living there. 

The filing estimates about 40 dogs remain at the rescue and roughly 700 dogs taken there since 2025 remain missing, along with an unknown number of cats, horses and birds. It asks the attorney general to place the animals with a receiver who could oversee their veterinary care and adoption while also preserving the nonprofit’s other assets. 

Raymond, who lives next door to the rescue and found eight dead dogs on the rescue property in April, said she can still hear dogs at the rescue from her home.

“I was working in my yard, and there was just the most pathetic howling. One dog would howl, and then another dog would howl, and it’s just heartbreaking,” Raymond told SFGATE. “It is terribly unfair to the animals to be held in jail while they’re doing their investigation. I understand the investigation may take a long time, but the animals are still there.”

Sabrina Woods, a Solano County shelter volunteer who worked with Raymond to examine transfer records involving Miranda’s Rescue, said she also understands why the criminal investigation may take time but supports an effort to find another legal avenue for the remaining animals. 

“The longer that they sit there without being adopted, without having socialization and all of those kinds of things, they’re going to continue to deteriorate,” Woods told SFGATE. “It’s going to become even harder to place them when the time is right.” 

No criminal charges have been filed against Miranda. SFGATE reached out to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office but did not hear back prior to publication. 

Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal previously said investigators are conducting a wide-ranging review of physical and digital evidence, financial and business records and witness interviews and “will not rush the investigative process.” 

The request marks the latest development in a case that began this spring after Raymond, who owns the house next to the rescue, uncovered the buried dogs while investigating longstanding concerns about animals sent to Miranda. Humboldt County sheriff’s investigators searched the property May 1 and returned June 23 with the FBI, California Department of Justice, California Attorney General’s Office, U.S. Department of Agriculture, forensic veterinarians and Cal Poly Humboldt anthropologists for a large-scale excavation. 

Authorities recovered 117 intact dog remains and 21 sets of skeletal remains during the June search, according to records cited in Raymond’s filing. Investigators previously said hundreds of dogs transferred to the rescue could not be accounted for. 

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Court records reviewed by SFGATE allege Miranda told investigators he sometimes shot dogs himself, on occasion as often as 10 per month, using a .22-caliber rifle. Miranda has denied euthanizing animals simply to create space for new paying transfers and has said decisions were based on medical conditions, behavioral problems and whether an animal could safely or legally be adopted. 

In a July statement, Miranda accused law enforcement and animal advocates of distorting the facts surrounding his rescue and said he had “fully cooperated with the investigation.” Honsal rejected allegations at the time that the investigation was motivated by a personal or political vendetta. 

Raymond’s request to the attorney general is separate from that criminal investigation. Because Miranda’s Rescue is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation, Raymond’s attorneys argue Bonta has independent authority over its charitable assets, including animals placed in the organization’s custody. 

Vanessa Shakib, co-founder and co-director of Advancing Law for Animals, which represents Raymond, told SFGATE that receivers, like the one Raymond has requested, are used in involuntary nonprofit dissolution proceedings to protect an organization’s assets while a case proceeds. 

“Animals are unfortunately considered property, although they are living sentient beings,” Shakib said. In this case, she said, a receiver could take control of Miranda’s Rescue’s assets, including its remaining animals, and arrange for their care. 

The request also asks the attorney general to remove Miranda as an officer or director of California charitable organizations, seek an accounting of allegedly diverted assets and preserve property that could potentially be available to people or organizations pursuing claims against the rescue.

Raymond said she has heard from rescues willing to accept animals if they are removed from the property, including organizations prepared to take some of the rescue’s larger animals. 

“I’ve been approached by so many different individuals and groups who have offered to take animals from there that I do not believe it will be a big problem to place those animals,” she said. “I want them out of there before winter hits, and so I am doing everything in my power to get them out of there.”