Shannon Miranda (left) with “Dino,” and Dino’s new owner. Image from Miranda’s Rescue website.

This Sunday, Aug. 2, from noon to 4 p.m., Miranda’s Rescue For Large & Small Animals will host its latest Wine and Cheese Open House, an annual fundraiser for the Fortuna-based nonprofit that offers temporary shelter for hundreds of critters at a time, including cats and dogs, cows, horses, sheep, llamas, exotic birds and more.

The rescue’s founder and president, Shannon Miranda, began his rescue operation in 1995, and in the two decades since it has gradually expanded to become the county’s largest and most diverse animal shelter. The 50-acre ranch, which includes kennels, pastureland, an aviary and a koi pond, is operated by dozens of volunteers and supported in part via proceeds from four thrift stores located around the county.

While the shelter has been lauded by the California Assembly and Miranda himself honored by the Red Cross as one of “Humboldt County’s Heroes,” an online campaign led by a Sacramento woman named Marianna Mullins has painted a very different picture. As the Outpost reported last year, Mullins, who was briefly a volunteer at the rescue, has accused Miranda of a variety of crimes, including breeding animals for profit, physically abusing dogs and horses, slaughtering pit bulls and burying their carcasses under cover of night.

Mullins set up a Facebook page called “Mirandas Rescue Fortuna, CA-The Truth Behind the Lies,” where she has posted collages of dogs she alleged were missing and presumed dead. She also hired a local private investigator, contacted Miranda’s business associates and took out a classified ad in the Times-Standard implying she was a representative of the rescue.

The Outpost first contacted Mullins in February 2014 to ask what evidence she had to support her accusations. She claimed to have proof that Miranda killed two of her own pit bulls, and said she and her private investigator were gathering more evidence, including witness statements. They would soon present their evidence to law enforcement, she said.

The Outpost could find no evidence to support Mullins’ claims, though we did find several instances in which she misrepresented the truth. Her private investigator, Jim Filomeo, offered to let the Outpost listen to recorded witness statements but only if we signed a written contract promising to keep every witness anonymous, keep Filomeo himself and his practice anonymous and solicit more witness testimony. We declined to meet those demands.

In the 16 months since publishing that story, the Outpost has received several requests for a follow-up. To date, no charges have been filed against Miranda. In a phone conversation this morning, Miranda said that’s proof that he’s done nothing wrong.

“If I’d done half that stuff I’d be in jail,” he said. “She guaranteed a conviction, what, last year?”

While Mullins has ceased contacting him personally, Miranda said she’s still making allegations. “A lot of people think she’s gone away; she hasn’t. She’s still posting stuff.” Indeed, Mullins has continued posting regular updates to the Facebook page she set up early last year. Some of the posts include comments from people who say dogs they dropped off there have since “disappeared.”

The Outpost contacted one woman who claimed her dog disappeared without ever being put up for adoption. She said via Facebook chat that she didn’t want to get involved because of the “backlash” she’d face, but she claimed to know for a fact that Miranda has killed dogs. Asked how to find evidence of this she responded, “The two people I know would like to stay anonymous. Sorry I cannot help you.”

Several similar narratives exist online — people who say they dropped off a dog or multiple dogs at Miranda’s Rescue and never saw evidence of those dogs alive again. But Miranda said that’s simply how rescue shelters work. He said he’s under no obligation to provide photographic proof of each adopted animal with its new family in its new home. 

“It is not my responsibility to give them information on dogs they’ve signed over to the rescue,” he said. “Any rescue — that just doesn’t happen. It’s confidential. She [Mullins] knows that.”

Miranda’s Rescue’s website and Facebook page do include many photographs of animals in their new “furever homes” with smiling people, but those are all voluntary. Some people, Miranda has said, don’t want their pictures online.

Yesterday the Outpost contacted Mullins again via Facebook to ask if she has made any progress in gathering evidence of Miranda’s wrongdoing and, if so, whether she has presented her findings to law enforcement. Mullins said the Outpost‘s last story on the issue was full of factual inaccuracies, though she didn’t name any specific errors. 

What follows is a transcription of our Facebook chat, edited slightly to eliminate some redundancy:

Lost Coast Outpost: Hi, Marianna. I’m considering writing a follow-up to my story from last year, and I’m writing you to see if you have any new evidence or if the case has proceeded any further than where it was last March. Is Mr. Filomeo still working on the case? Have you or Mr. Filomeo presented evidence to law enforcement? I’m still interested in hearing about any concrete evidence you or anyone else may have. Thanks.

Marianna Mullins: U mean u are willing to speak to witnesses and other rescuers who sent dogs to Miranda for rehab and missing their dogs!?

LoCO: I’ve always been willing to speak to witnesses and other rescuers. But … you’ve accused him of killing dogs. Do you have any evidence of that?

MM: you can publish this in the follow up story: I have never approached Shannon in romantic way. He told u the story to take u away from an actual issues … .

LoCO: You’ve been looking into this for more than two years now. When do you plan to bring evidence to law enforcement?

MM: Evidence of him killing the dogs do exist! And some are recordings in his own voice and his brothers. Ask Shannon for his permission to release him to you and it will be done.

[Note: Mullins claims to have recordings of a phone conversation in which Miranda admits to killing dogs. California has a “two-party consent” wiretapping law, which makes it a crime to record any private conversation or phone call without consent from all parties involved. The Outpost could find no evidence that permission to release such recordings after-the-fact would negate criminal liability. Regardless, we asked Miranda, who said he doesn’t know what the alleged recoding might be. “Ask her what it is and [say] you want to hear it and then let me know,” he said. We asked Mullins for it, though she said the recording is not — and has never been — in her personal possession. If she provides a copy we will provide an update.]

LoCO: If you have evidence of him killing dogs, why haven’t you gone to law enforcement?

MM: I did not say we are not

LocO: Have you?

These are my main questions:
1. Have you presented your evidence to law enforcement?
2. If not, why not?

MM: the recording that I mentioned was taken without shannon’ knowledge of him being recorded thus can not be released unless he gives permission … Ryan nothing was factual in the [previous Outpost] story. again this is my constructive feedback to you!

LoCO: These are my main questions:
1. Have you presented your evidence to law enforcement?
2. If not, why not?

MM: I tell u what

u can speak to all rescuers who are missing their dogs and let me know if u want to do further looking into it. Do u want to start with this?!

LoCO: No. I want to start with this:
1. Have you presented your evidence to law enforcement?
2. If not, why not?

The burden of proof is on you.

Why won’t you answer those two questions?

MM: It is certainly on us and we are working on the proof

LoCO: 1. Have you presented your evidence to law enforcement?
2. If not, why not?

MM: It is presented

LoCO: To whom?

MM: I will not comment which law enforcement agency

LoCO: Who presented it? When?

And why would you not comment on which law enforcement agency?

What possible reason could you have for not telling me that?

MM: Ryan, you have written a bogus story that was told by Miranda. You were fooled as so many others

LoCO: Who presented it? When? To what law enforcement agency?

MM: As to why I am not telling you which agency is bc you did not publish a factual story and thus, your professional integrity as a journalist are being questioned by so many.

LoCO: Your integrity is also in question, and your evasiveness implies to me that you’re hiding something.

If you told me which law enforcement agency I could fact-check it.

Which, if you’re telling the truth, would help us both. …

Mullins continued to evade direct questions, justifying her evasions by saying she didn’t trust this reporter. We kept bringing it back to the main question.

LoCO: Tell me that one thing: Which law enforcement office did you submit evidence to? That’s one simple statement. I will look into it, and if you’re telling the truth we can go from there. Think of it as a test of both our honesty.

MM: I was asked not to disclose the agency per written email to me thus I will need to acknowledge this.

LoCO: No law enforcement would ask that. Who asked you that?

MM: The proof of Miranda wrong doing will be in public shortly in writing as we are also working with on this [sic]

LoCO: That’s what you told me 16 months ago, Marianna.

MM: And I stand by it! I appreciate you reaching out. It is actually shows that you want to know the truth.

LoCO: I’m glad you feel that way. But how can you stand by your statements of 16 months ago? You said then that charges would be filed soon. Sixteen months later and nothing. That’s not “soon.”

Who told you to keep the law enforcement agency secret?

At that point Mullins said she was at work and wanted to contact other people to see if they’d be willing to speak with the Outpost. “I will not comment on anything else,” she wrote. Six minutes later she wrote, “I received 1 responds [sic] already: “so he is writing to be right? or to get the truth? cause it makes a difference”

Two hours after that she wrote again:

MM: One person responded so far; she is in Malaya on the business trip and will be back on 8/4

LoCO: I really don’t feel the need to speak with anyone else. You’re the one who brought these allegations forward. I’m asking you for information to back them up. What law enforcement agency was given evidence?

MM: Ryan, so you do want to speak to witnesses and rescuers? I thought u said that you wanted to. Again, as I stated to you above, I am not releasing info on who received the information pertaining to our investigation. Please do not contact me again unless you really want to speak to everyone who is involved. ….

LoCO: Can you give me a plausible reason why you’d keep the law enforcement agency secret?

MM: It is not a law enforcement agency; it is a nationwide animal rights organization …

u assumed it is a law enforcement agency

LoCO: I assumed that because my simple, direct question was this: “1. Have you presented your evidence to law enforcement?
2. If not, why not?”

This exchange went back-and-forth for a while with no discernible progress. Eventually it got back to this:

LoCO: The burden of proof is on you. If you personally can’t prove these allegations, after more than two years, then you shouldn’t have made them.

MM: … You speak to everyone who is involved including witnesses, this is how you obtain the proof. I have nothing to proof [sic] to you or anyone else. …

The Outpost sent an email to Filomeo, the private investigator Mullins hired last year, but did not hear back. This afternoon we called his office. Filomeo answered, and when this reporter identified himself Filomeo promptly hung up.

We’ll provide an update if any new information comes along. In the meantime, here’s a recent video posted to Miranda’s Rescue’s Facebook page: