Shannon Miranda (left) is under investigation for alleged animal cruelty, theft and fraud at his eponymous nonprofit rescue organization.

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In interviews with law enforcement, Shannon Miranda admitted to burying “numerous dogs” at a time in mass graves at his “no-kill” animal sanctuary in Fortuna, according to an affidavit from Humboldt County Sheriff’s Sergeant Shane Steel. 

Miranda, the 55-year-old man at the center of a multi-agency investigation into allegations of animal cruelty, theft and fraud, changed his story “numerous times” over the course of two interviews conducted in late April and early May, according to Steel. But eventually, Steel says, Miranda made several confessions. Among them: He admitted sending multiple “fake adoption” texts in which he claimed to have found new homes for dogs that, in reality, he’d already shot dead with his .22 caliber rifle. 

Miranda said he sent these bogus texts “to protect feelings and [insisted] that each of the dogs he euthanized were for legitimate reasons,” such as behavioral or medical issues, Steel writes in his sworn statement.

This affidavit, which outlines an array of previously undisclosed evidence in the case, led Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Steven Steward to issue a second search warrant for Miranda’s Rescue, located at 1603 Sandy Prairie Road in Fortuna. In executing that warrant across three days last week, investigators and support personnel unearthed the remains of at least 138 dogs along with hundreds more bones and six loose microchips.

In a previous search of the property, conducted on May 1, officers inspecting a barn onsite found blood spatter, a .22 caliber rifle and spent shell casings. Later, in the same area of they barn, they located more than 600 dog collars. 

In his statement of probable cause, Sgt. Steel says he believes Miranda is guilty of at least two felonies: fraud and animal cruelty — specifically, “intentional animal maiming or killing.”

A dog carcass is carried away during a June 24 excavation and search of Miranda’s Rescue. | File photo by Ryan Burns.

The rumors of dogs being disappeared from Miranda’s Rescue have been around for years, but it took the actions of Fortuna animal activists Jennifer Raymond and Jenna Moore to kickstart the current criminal investigation. Raymond, who had been suspicious of Miranda for years, purchased the property directly adjacent to Miranda’s Rescue last year. She and Moore later set up motion-activated trail cameras aimed into the field that would prove to be a mass canine graveyard.

In late April, the cameras captured footage of Miranda using a tractor to drop a suspicious-looking bucketload into a large hole in the ground. That night, the two women trespassed onto his property and dug up eight freshly buried dog carcasses, which they later turned over to sheriff’s investigators.

In Steel’s recent affidavit, he says Miranda initially “adamantly denied” any connection to the exhumed dog bodies, at least six of which had bullet holes in their skulls. But the dogs had been microchipped, and the chip data confirmed that those dogs had been sent to Miranda’s Rescue from out-of-county animals shelters, Steel says.

Under further questioning, Miranda admitted to shooting up to 10 “un-adoptable” dogs per month, sometimes, he claimed, after injecting them with a tranquilizing medication called acepromazine, or “Ace.” Steel was skeptical. 

“According to online searches, this is a substance only administered by veterinarians and [is] tightly controlled,” he writes in his affidavit. “When Shannon was asked if the eight dead dogs recovered from his property would have Ace in their system if tested, he back tracked and said he did not always do it and only had it on hand when it was donated to him.”

Miranda had also previously told law enforcement that he prefers to shoot dogs in the back of their skulls, but investigators again confronted him with evidence from the eight dog carcasses, some of which had “apparent bullet holes in the eye socket,” according to Steel. In response, Miranda offered that “although he wished to shoot them in the back of the head, sometimes they were shot in different locations on their bodies due to uncontrolled movements,” the affidavit says.

A social media image showing Zora before she was sent to Miranda’s Rescue.

As for the fake adoption messages, the Sheriff’s Office says Miranda was first caught lying to the manager of Oakland Animal Services, telling her via text that one of the 150-plus dogs the shelter had sent him over the previous year — a black-and-brindle mastiff mix named Zora — had been adopted. He sent this text despite “knowing [Zora] was deceased at his hands,” Steel says. (Zora was one of the eight dogs exhumed by Raymond and Moore.)

Miranda told investigators that he’d been forced to euthanize Zora due to her aggressive behavior and that he’d lied about it in an effort to spare the feelings of shelter staff. However, when sheriff’s investigators spoke with some of those Oakland staff members, they adamantly refuted Miranda’s characterization of the dog, describing Zora as “timid and non-aggressive.”

The Numbers

Once investigators learned just how many dogs were being delivered to Miranda’s Rescue, that alone was reason to suspect foul play. From January 2025 through April 2026 the facility received more than 900 dogs from shelters across the state and beyond, with an untold additional number surrendered by private parties, Sheriff William Honsal said during a June 23 press briefing. (Steel’s affidavit says Miranda’s Rescue took in nearly 100 “owner surrenders” between January 2025 and February 2026.)

Of the 900-plus shelter dogs Miranda’s took in during that 15-month span, 731 remained unaccounted for following last week’s search and excavation.

In preparation for that follow-up search, investigators called local and out-of-county shelters to compare numbers. Sequoia Humane Society reported adopting out 197 dogs in slightly under a year’s time, with zero instances of euthanasia. A Southern California nonprofit animal rescue called Pups Without Borders reported taking in about 500 dogs per year, and its operator said that in her six years of operating the facility, she’s only had to euthanize one dog. 

Steel writes in his affidavit that after interviewing Miranda’s Rescue employees and volunteers, examining the nonprofit’s records, speaking with every local veterinarian’s office and consulting with other investigators on this case, he figures that only about 100 dogs per year are actually adopted from the facility, just a fraction of the dogs being delivered.

“In conversations with paid or volunteer staff from Miranda’s Rescue, no one, including Shannon’s own daughter who is the former office manager, could account for the discrepancy,” Steel writes. “Several employees and volunteers told me that dogs would regularly be taken from the animal rescue to ‘the ranch’ which is the private side of the property near Shannon’s residence. Once the dogs went there, they would never be seen again.”

On a Facebook page she created in hopes of locating some of the missing animals, Moore invited people to share any texts and videos in which Miranda claimed to have found new homes for the dogs they’d surrendered. To date, the post has accumulated more than 600 comments, including videos of at least eight dogs being walked through “the ranch” on the private side of Miranda’s property.

Below is an edited compilation of those videos. They show dogs being led by Miranda as he speaks to the camera, and while he can be heard announcing that each dog has been adopted, none of the clips include footage of adopters. Moore told the Outpost via text that she’s certain these dogs were being walked straight back to the barn where investigators later found spent ammunition, empty collars and blood spatter.

When investigators asked Miranda about walking dogs to “the ranch” side of his property, “[H]e admitted this is how he would operate when he had to shoot a dog,” Steel writes in his affidavit. While Miranda previously claimed that he shoots dogs only on the rare occasions when a veterinarian isn’t available, investigators found that he does not have a regular working relationship with any local vet.

Of the 150-plus dogs that Oakland Animal Services sent to Miranda’s Rescue since the beginning of 2025, investigators found adoption paperwork for just one, Steel attests. A volunteer for that shelter said most of the dogs they sent him were Huskies, German Shepherds, Malinois or pit bulls.

“She further described the majority of the dogs sent to Miranda’s Rescue as, ‘Old crepity senior dogs that we just knew would [be] the sweetest couch potatoes ever, not a bite or reaction in their body,’” the affidavit says.

Fraud and Theft

Proving the criminal fraud and theft allegations against Miranda in a court of law will hinge on showing that he accepted payment under false pretenses — for example, by claiming to operate a “no-kill” rescue when in fact the facility has been anything but.

Steel indicates that such evidence has already been gathered.

“Numerous shelters and citizens have come forward saying [that] after they turned animals over to Shannon/Miranda’s Rescue for a steep fee which ranges from $500 to $5,000 depending on the dog, they inquired with Shannon, and he confirmed that the dog was adopted,” the sergeant writes in his affidavit.

These supposed confirmations were usually sent via text, though Miranda “would never or rarely share the information of the new owner with the inquiring party due to ‘privacy concerns,’” Steel relays.

After Miranda admitted that an untold number of such texts were indeed false, “he again claimed this was to protect feelings and that each of the dogs he euthanized were for legitimate reasons,” the affidavit says.

Regarding Miranda’s claim that he often tranquilizes dogs before shooting them, Steel writes, “This medication he claimed to use is regulated and not something that a civilian like Shannon would have access to and I believe that this is another example of him being untruthful.”

Steel is also skeptical of Miranda’s description of euthanizing dogs with single shot to the back of the skull from his .22 caliber rifle. 

“I find it likely we will locate animals who were shot multiple times in a non-humane manner,” he writes. “On top of this, I believe there is enough probable cause to dispel Shannon’s claims that he only shot ‘unadoptable/aggressive’ dogs. Zora is the perfect example.”

The 117 carcasses and 21 skulls recovered in last week’s excavations will be closely examined for evidence of how the dogs died, Honsal said at a press release on Monday. Investigators also confiscated adoption and financial records, many of which were initially left behind “due to lack of knowledge of the scale of this investigation at the time of the first search,” Steel writes.

Still, even before last week’s three-day follow-up search and excavation, Steel offered a conclusion about what’s been happening at Miranda’s Rescue.

“It appears as if Shannon, who is intaking at a very bare minimum $250,000 a year for dogs from private citizens and out of the area shelters, is obtaining this money under false pretenses and killing them to allow him to keep the dogs coming in and the cash flowing.”

File photo of last week’s search. | Ryan Burns

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